Company was an ever changing collection of free improvising

Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

 musicians. The concept was devised by guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 Derek Bailey in order to create challenging and artistically stimulating combinations of players who might not otherwise have had an opportunity to work together.

At various times Company has included Evan Parker

Evan Parker

Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...

, Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton

Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...

, Tristan Honsinger

Tristan Honsinger

Tristan Honsinger is a cello player active in free jazz and free improvisation. He is perhaps best known for his long-running collaboration with free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and guitarist Derek Bailey....

, Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.-Biography:...

, Lol Coxhill

Lol Coxhill

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...

, Fred Frith

Fred Frith

Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...

, Steve Beresford

Steve Beresford

Steve Beresford is a British musician who graduated from the University of York. He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, trumpet, euphonium, double-bass and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music...

, Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy

Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....

, Jamie Muir

Jamie Muir

Jamie Muir is a UK painter and former percussionist, best known for his work in King Crimson.-Biography:Muir attended Edinburgh College of Art during the 1960s and began playing jazz on trombone before settling on percussion....

, Johnny Dyani

Johnny Dyani

Johnny Mbizo Dyani was a South African jazz double bassist and pianist, who played with such musicians as Don Cherry, Steve Lacy, David Murray and Leo Smith....

, Leo Smith, Han Bennink

Han Bennink

Han Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....

, Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne

Eugene Chadbourne is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but...

, Henry Kaiser

Henry Kaiser (musician)

Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer.Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "first generation" of American free improvisers.-Biography:His grandfather was the...

, John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

, Buckethead

Buckethead

Brian Carroll , better known by his stage name Buckethead, is a guitarist and multi instrumentalist who has worked within several genres of music. He has released 34 studio albums, four special releases and one EP. He has performed on over 50 more albums by other artists...

, Georgie Born

Georgina Born

Georgina Born is a British academic, anthropologist and musician. As a musician she is known as Georgie Born, but in academic circles she does not use the diminutive form.-Background:...

and many others. Company Weeks, annual week long free improvisational festivals organised by Bailey, ran from 1977 until 1994.

Discography (partial)

• 1971: The Music Improvisation Company 1968-1971
• 1976: Company 2
• 1976: Company 3
• 1977: Company 5
• 1977: Fictions
• 1978: Company 6 & 7

• 1980: Fables
• 1982: Epiphany / Epiphanis
• 1983: Trios
• 1987: Once
• 1992: Company 91 (three volumes)
• 2001: Company in Marseille (recorded 1999)

Sources

• List of Incus CDs (mainly Company or Derek Bailey related)
• List of Incus LPs (mainly Company or Derek Bailey related)

Literature

• Derek Bailey: Improvisation - Its Nature and Practice in Music - Da Capo Press 1992
• Ben Watson: Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation - Verso 2004

External links

• Incus Records Official site for Company's record label