Guitarist Derek Bailey, one of the first practitioners of non-idiomatic free improvisation, once opined that solo extemporization was an inferior activity. Since he played unaccompanied concerts quite often, Bailey might’ve been pulling the interviewer’s leg, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t mean it, since his preferred playing situation was one where the musicians hadn’t fixed on a vocabulary yet.
A quarter century has passed since Bailey left this earth, but if anyone has his words and example committed to heart, it’s John Butcher. The English soprano/tenor saxophonist took Bailey’s precedent quite seriously as he developed his own capacity to operate within the realm of absolute freedom, and you can perceive elements…

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