BAILEY AND ANDREA CENTAZZO, DEREK - Drops

"Reissue, originally released in 1977. In the history of free improvised music, there has been arguably no greater advocate for the idiom's power and potential than the English guitarist Derek Bailey. Fiercely principled, between his emergence during the 1960s and his death in 2005, he cut a wide path, positioning this music at the height of creativity, transpiring in real time, and a means through which people from diverse backgrounds could come together, express, and commune. For Bailey, "playing is about playing with other people... Improvisation is a process that gets relationships sorted out." Among many great examples of this within Bailey's sprawling discography, a stand out is his 1977 duo LP Drops -- originally issued as the third album on Ictus -- recorded with the Italian percussionist/drummer Andrea Centazzo. Capturing the guitarist during one of his most prolific and creatively visionary periods -- overflowing with explosive clarity, dialogic energy, and imagination -- he