DEREK BAILEY / HAN BENNINK - Derek Bailey / Han Bennink (LP-1972-Incus–9)

Label: Incus Records – 9

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo / Country: UK / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Selections from live performances at Verity's Place, June 16-17, 1972.

Cover drawing, Artwork – Mal Dean

Composed By – Bailey, Bennink

Engineer – Bob Woolford

Matrix / Runout (Side A Runout stamped): INCUS 9 A-3△6

Matrix / Runout (Side B Runout stamped): INCUS 9 B-3△6

A1 - Call That a Balance ........................................................................... 2:07

A2 - Misty .................................................................................................. 7:18

A3 - The Title ............................................................................................ 2:17

A4 - Who Is That ....................................................................................... 4:02

A5 - The Girl with the Concrete Tongue ................................................... 4:35

B1 - Din Din Teo ........................................................................................ 9:31

B2 - On a Clear Day .................................................................................. 4:07

B3 - Barb ................................................................................................... 1:36

B4 - Shake Your Arse White Man ............................................................. 1:32

B5 - Whiling ............................................................................................... 2:19

B6 - When Day Is Done and Shadows Fall I Think of You ....................... 4:10

DEREK BAILEY – guitar

HAN BENNINK – drums, percussion

Derek Bailey & Han Bennink (subtitled Selections from Live Performances at Verity's Place) is a live album by guitarist Derek Bailey and percussionist Han Bennink which was recorded 1972 and released on the Incus label.

This selection of live duet performances from 1972 is a wonder to listen to almost forty-four years after the original performances. The guitar's greatest improviser bantering musically with the Netherlands' greatest drummer is, no doubt, a point of interest for those interested in the extremes of Western music. Before Bailey had recorded the infamous and now legendary Incus Taps disc, he had perfected his view of the atonal world (at least up until that time), undoing it with spiritual guidance from the ghost of Webern at his side. These two live dates reflect that direction, having been recorded less than a year before. Given that Bailey is investigating his undoing of the ritual tonal space, Bennink's woolly percussions are the perfect foil: Who better to stretch the perceptions of guitar music to its limit and beyond than a man for whom the drums are the only instrument in any band? Thus, the chase is on, moving from one dynamic range to the next in search of the perfect tonal space where things completely fall apart, only to be picked up in rather grotesquely fascinating order. This music asks no questions; it only shouts obscenities while laughing hysterically because it knows exactly what it's not doing. Great album.

(Review by Thom Jurek)

If you find it, buy this album!