Derek Bailey

 443 pages of Derek Bailey viewed partly through the eyes of Ben Watson but also verbatim through detailed interviews with Bailey, Tony Oxley and Gavin Bryars and shorter contributions from other musicians such as Steve Lacy and Eugene Chadbourne. There's a great amount that's extremely enjoyable, particularly taking in the early days in Sheffield, the explorations of Joseph Holbrooke, interludes in the Channel Islands, and Bailey talking about close friends, musicians or non-musicians.

Over 100 pages are devoted to Company, not surprisingly given the importance and relevance of the enterprise to Bailey's musical make-up though, inevitably, covering a 17-year period, some of the individual annual events are only sketched out. Though there have been outlines of Company elsewhere, particularly in Derek Bailey's own Improvisation, its nature and practice in music, it is a pity that this part of the text features less verbatim comments - even from Bailey, but certainly from the multitude of musicians who have appeared at these events - than at other places in the book. The final main chapter focuses on Bailey's position as international free improvisation ambassador, moving between Japan, New York, London and Barcelona, and places in between, and comes pretty well up-to-date with a description of Limescale. There's a Derek Bailey discography and an Incus discography but, speaking perhaps as a librarian, it is a real pity that there is no single bibliographic listing of the multitude of references made throughout the book, and that some references are even left dangling in the air. Apart from that, an extremely enjoyable and recommended read.