John Stevens

Among the founding fathers of free of charge improvisation in Britain. Within the middle-’60s, Stevens helped discovered Spontaneous Music Outfit (SME), an important group that included the majority of England’s best experimental jazz music artists. The band’s lineup progressed and fluctuated, but at once or another Paul Rutherford, Trevor W, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Kenny Wheeler, and Julie Tippetts had been among the people. Stevens’ dad was a touch dancer, one factor in his decision to become musician. Stevens became a member of the Royal Atmosphere Drive in 1958, where he examined music officially and met various other like-minded musicians, specifically W and Rutherford. Within the provider he used skiffle and Dixieland rings. Stevens’ curiosity about jazz appears to have implemented an all natural curve; bebop was his initial language (he used hard bop saxophonist Tubby Hayes), accompanied by the free of charge jazz dialects from the Giuffre-Bley-Swallow trio and Albert Ayler. He became among the best contemporary jazz drummers in London through the middle-’60s. He performed Ronnie Scott’s golf club regularly, and shaped his personal septet that included Wheeler. Around 1965, he became a member of an organization led by Rutherford and W. The band’s music became even more avant-garde than was pleasant in regular jazz night clubs, therefore from 1966 they performed their free of charge jazz in the tiny Theatre Club, a little theatre in the Western End of London. The Rutherford-Watts group became Spontaneous Music Outfit. Soon, Wheeler became a member of the group, after that Evan Parker do aswell. SME documented its 1st recording in 1966. By 1967 the music group had grown to some septet, with the help of Bailey and bassist Barry Man. Stevens’ playing became significantly textural and minimal. At his instigation, the band’s music all together became even more subdued. Aside from Parker, another people lowered out, and by middle-1967 Stevens got end up being the band’s singular leader (ultimately Parker became a member of the ranks from the SME’s sometime people). On the next many years such players as Peter Kowald, Barre Phillips, Maggie Nicols, and Johnny Dyani handed through Stevens-led ensembles. In the past due ’70s, Stevens utilized young players: Nigel Coombes, Roger Smith, and Colin Real wood. Wood lowered out in 1978, and others performed (very sometimes) like a trio until 1992. The final SME included Smith and saxophonist John Butcher. The group’s last album, A FRESH Distance, was extracted from live shows recorded in the entire year before Stevens’ loss of life in 1994. While SME was most likely his most significant association, Stevens hardly ever ended playing in various other contexts, from rock and roll to bop. At several situations he led a big Spontaneous Music Orchestra as well as the jazz-rock group Apart. Stevens died of the coronary attack at age 54.