Derek Bailey – An Informed Freedom

The paper presentation sits within the free improvisation and jazz analysis field, highlighting informed performance practice methodologies within free improvisation as enablers of artistic expression. The research documents organizational devices and procedures within the recorded work of Derek Bailey. The aim of the paper presentation was to highlight how informed practice and stratagems can be used within free improvisation contexts to produce distinct improvisational identities. The project builds upon an ongoing interest in the area first developed in my PhD exegesis Free Improvisation in the Context of Repertoire Interpretation – An Applied Investigation of Derek Bailey’s Ballads.