Bass Player: Victor Bailey
Born in Philadelphia, on 27 March 1960, Victor Randall Bailey was raised by a highly musical family. His father, Morris Bailey Jr., was an active musician and composer, while his uncle, Donald “Duck” Bailey, was a jazz drummer, who played on numerous Blue Note records (e.g., Jimmy Smith Trio, Hampton Hawes, Carmen McRae, Dizzy Gillespie). As a child, Bailey played the drums, but ultimately switched to bass guitar after the bassist in his neighborhood band walked out of a band practice. Because young Victor took an immediate liking to the instrument, his father encouraged him to become a bass player.] Beginning in 1978, at the age of 18, Bailey attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston after being disqualified from naval service due to asthma.
Like his father, Bailey suffered from Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease for most of his adult life. As the disease progressed, Bailey began using a cane to offset his weakened legs. The weakness finally spread to his upper body, necessitating his 2015 retirement from performing and from his teaching position at Berklee College of Music. He died on 11 November, 2016 in Stafford, VA, likely from complications from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease – the disease that also took Charles Mingus from us).
Bailey played a 1986 Pensa-Suhr J-4 koa bass and a fretless Ibanez Roadstar among others. His instruments were auctioned by Skinner. The J-4 sold for $10,455 US. Bailey had a series of remarkable contributions as the main bassist for American jazz fusion band Weather Report, for which he played on four of their studio albums between 1983 and 1986.
The attached transcription is a simple little tune by percussionist Mino Cinelu which featured on the 1985 Weather Report album, ‘Sportin’ Life’. The first half is mostly minims and quarter notes (some accents appears intermittently) but the second half, whilst essentially a two bar repeating pattern, is more demanding. The repetition, however, gives the reader a few chances to figure it out on the first run through so a good exercise for a inexperienced reader who is trying to nail sixteenth syncopations.
In case anyone is interested, the term ‘Confians’ is Haitian Creole and we believe that it translates as ‘citizens’.