"Derek Bailey can't put a foot wrong these days, but he's often only as interesting as those he chooses to work with. Back home in Sheffield, he found himself withtwo of the most sympathetic collaborators he or we could wish for" - Brian Morton, Wire
"The three players trade phrases as if hurling a hot coal back and forth" - John Fordham, Guardian
"Still unsettles, still challenges, still demands careful listening, the ghost of a mordant smil still flickers behind his (Bailey's) interventions.....with partners as powerful as Beck and Hession" - Barry Withernden, Jazz Review
"Beck's spluttering tenor engages in a comfortable 50 minute dialogue" - Stewart Lee, Sunday Times
"Loaded with contrasts and rhythmically diverse articulations. Essential listening for Bailey’s legion of admirers." - Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz
"MEANWHILE, BACK IN SHEFFIELD captures on disc a now-uncommon occurrence: the first live gig in a decade by that British city’s best-known native improviser: guitarist Derek Bailey, now a Barcelona-resident. He’s joined by local Mick Beck on tenor saxophone, whistles and bassoon, and drummer Paul Hession from Leeds. Both men have played individually with Bailey, but never recorded with him in this formation. Recorded live – but with audience applause excised – the barely 53 minute MEANWHILE, BACK IN SHEFFIELD reproduces the concert exactly as it evolved. Bailey’s hyper-distinctive guitar phrasing is such that while Beck sometimes screams and squeals through both horns, and Hession unleashes fierce cross-handed textures, the fretman guides the improvisations. Oh course, whether this happens through tacit musical agreement, the force of Bailey’s personality or the others’ deference to an elder is open to interpretation. Showpiece track is “After The Red Deer”, the nearly-33-minute opening salvo. Beginning with bird-whistle chirps from Beck and understates flams from Hession, it gains its shape from Bailey’s distinctive strums and string swipes. Soon the saxophonist’s sparrow peeps swell to crow-like caws as he tops off the body tube with glottal punctuation and tongue-fluttering. With the drummer limiting himself to nerve beats and wooden concussions, the guitarist’s irregular patterns, scraping pulsation and quaking reverb match Beck’s spacious tone expelling, finally diminishing to trilling obbligatos from the reedist and claw-hammer picking from the guitarist. Asserting himself, Bailey chromatically works his way across his strings and frets, goading Hession to follow suit with snare press rolls, cymbal slaps and drumstick-across-the-metal squeaks. Beck’s response in the improvisation’s penultimate minutes is to bring out his bassoon, showcasing basso quivers, and side-slipping sonority. Diminishing his own contribution to a dewy mist of spiky notes, the guitarist presages the ending with highly rhythmic chording. Both other, shorter instant compositions feature more of the same, with Bailey and Hession sticking to spanked and tapped single note textures. Meanwhile Beck consolidates his sound, at one point spraying a wailing melody with one horn as he simultaneously peeps penny-whistle decoration. As a maximalist, his solos often consumes the entire sonic space." - Ken Waxman, JazzWord
"This is one of those "musician's dream" free for all improvisational free jazz sessions including an electric guitar, drums, tenor sax, bassoon, and interesting bells and whistles. It's more music in spirit than in form, but that's the magic of free-form. Something that wouldn't necessarily be music because of its random nature often takes on a brand new life when it is surrounded by other wonderful sounds. In this case, I love what these three guys did. I hear some of the most fruitful experimentation just pouring out of what they play, what they don't play, and what they create together by not playing together. There's your subject, now discuss…." - Neo-zine
