Desert Island Jazz
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Colin Bailey (2005)

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Drummer Colin Bailey has lived in the United States for over 40 years, yet still speaks with the soft burr of his native Wiltshire.

Beginning drums at age four, he also studied piano and music theory at a young age, but it was on the drums that he worked with English name bands as a teenager and in Australia in the late 1950s. Colin credits Dave Brubeck drummer Joe Morello, whom he met and studied with in Sydney in 1960, as his biggest influence as a drummer. As Colin puts it, "I put in many hours every day trying to get [the technique] down." ("I am still practising mastering it!", Colin adds.)

In San Francisco in the early 1960, COlin was a member of the Vince Guaraldi trio, and appeared on Vince's hit "Cast Your Fate to the Wind". This resulted in his relocating to Los Angeles to play with fellow UK-expat Victor Feldman. This led to a long career in the Southern California clubs and studios. Colin played with everybody.

1979 brought a big change, a move to Dallas, working in the jingle scene thriving there at that time, and also becoming a drum teacher at North Texas State University. (He spent his weekends playing with ex-Miles Davis pianist Red Garland, who had returned to his home town, Dallas.)

Colin has been back in the Bay Area since the mid-1980s.
Pick Artist Album Song Label
# 1 Cannonball Adderley At the Lighthouse Azul Serape (Capitol)
# 2 Wynton Kelly Kelly Great June Night (Vee-Jay)
# 3 Miles Davis Someday My Prince Will Come Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia)
# 4 Victor Feldman Artful Dodger St Thomas (Concord)
# 5 Oscar Peterson We Get Requests You Look Good to Me (Verve)
# 6 Gene Ammons Boss Tenor Close Your Eyes (OJC)
# 7 Joe Pass For Django Django (Pacific Jazz)
         
Book Spike Milligan, "The Bedside Milligan"
         
Luxury Item A drum set, and 200 cases
Alternate Picks/Not Broadcast
Alt 1 Bill Evans Waltz for Debby Waltz for Debby (Riverside)
Castaways by date
Greg Abate

Colin Bailey

Chuck Bernstein

Alex Budman

Deszon X. Claiborne

Omar Clay

Jeff Clayton

Bob Dorough

Mary Fettig

Gary Foster

Ken French

Paul Horn

Weber Iago

Harold Jones

Jerry Karp

Sarah Manning

Jon Mayer

Virginia Mayhew

Mark Murphy

Zaki Nadiri

Kim Nalley

Rebecca Parris

Jean-Michael Pilc

Rudy Salvini

Jovino Santos Neto

Irene Sazer

John Schott

Khalil Shaheed

Todd Sickafoose

Allen Smith

Michael Spiro

Kristen Strom

Robert Strom

Randy Vincent

Scott Whitfield

Dick Whittington