| | “ Freedom is a strange thing. A lot of my playing life has been involved with what is supposedly freedom in relation to what preceded it. Just us talking TOGETHER ” (John Stevens in Impetus n° 3, 1976). After being one of the British improvisation scene’s founder (thanks to a daily work to make it alive and flourishing), John Stevens led two logically overlapping careers. On the one hand, in various groupings put together under the name of Spontaneous Music Ensemble, on the other hand in more “traditional” orchestras : in both situations, aesthetics, research, creativity and talent were meeting. Like a dizzy stream, a stormy spiral, a devastating and fertile tsunami, John Stevens was leading, with a strength not always untroubled, his fellows travellers to find unheard-of (never heard before, I mean). The SME is a perfect example of it ; three short words, containing in themselves the whole spirit and processes : a Music, of course, Spontaneous, out of any rift or pre-established rule, done together, in an Ensemble. By strong and marked individualities who, like any temperament, skipped over the everyday life and the social rules to go straight to the point, toward a creative artistic expression, avoiding business and marketing’s traps. It went through occasional rough patches. To play or to die.
“I was initially attracted to jazz by this feeling of complete freedom in its expression itself. ” Normal approach : John Stevens was playing freely into harmony and melody. Born in 1940, he had been musically upset by Albert Ayler and paid tribute to him on several occasions, particularly with the SME (Jazz in Britain, Broadcast, April 1971, Live Big Band & Quartet, Vinyl VS 0015 / Konnex KCD 5045). But he had to find his own space ; that’s what he did with the Little Theatre Club, since the end of 1965, notably during the afternoon rehearsals. There, nobody asked him just to keep the tempo - scornfully, he had previously experienced the effects of it. Six nights a week, John Stevens will meet the musicians with whom he’ll go a long way : Chris Mc Gregor, Derek Bailey, Harry Miller, John Surman, Jeff Clyne, Peter Lemer and two artists he had met in the RAF regimental band, Paul Rutherford and Trevor Watts.
From Challenge (Eyemark 1002, March 1966, 420 copies and still not republished), the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, in its different evolutions, will assert itself as the revolutionary and inventive band which will propel British improvisation to the peak of glory and recognition, as a duo - with Evan Parker (Summer 1967, Emanem 4005 CD) or Trevor Watts (the fabulous For You to Share, A Records A01 / Emanem 4023) - or in bigger groups (SMOrchestra).
The returns to the “tradition” in bands mainly based on trio - here is the perfect example - will be numerous for John Stevens, always with this approach from inside the heart of music, written or not, and this kind of guerilla war against the conventional musical thought to “ find new ways of saying things ” (Ian Carr, in Music Outside). With Amalgam, a kind of SME’s brother (or enemy ?), Stevens will complete textures and lines developed by Trevor Watts in what he called a “linear concept”. With Away, he’ll explore other ways, doubtless close to the conceptions of that time, a kind of adaptation of “improvised jazz-rock”.
Stevens owned a very open and wide vision of music : he would have been happy to work with Judy Garland, he has accompanied Donovan or John Martyn (“my favourite musician”) and has done tours with Peter King and John Etheridge in a group described as “free-bop”. He liked to compare music to painting, an art he exercised with the same precision and sense of detail as in music. A kind of pointillism pushed to the limit.
Then, The Plough… Other mythical place of British improvisation, with experiences like this one. A meeting previously unpublished on record, with a fabulous blower - silent for too long - and a young double bass player who shows, in 1979, that he’ll become the great musician he is today. The club was illuminated each night by unforgettable sessions, whole weeks playing for next to nothing but an endless pleasure.
Mike Osborne winds along his notes with the usual fluidity and typical falsetto on the alto, often walking a tightrope without falling down : a perfect funambulist. In the same way, the Summertime’s version is close to the Albert Ayler’s one : heartrending but absolutely radiant.
The record starts with a swaying melody of Jackie McLean and it’s not by chance… Listen to the drummer’s restrained spite, the saxophone’s majesty and the bassist’s suppleness. Paul Rogers develops the beginnings of the technique we know today : virtuosity, accuracy and mastery are combined with phenomenal strength and simultaneous almost inhuman treatment of the strings… This rhythm section owns all the characteristics of a locomotive. Launched on the rails, it pulls one of the main saxophonists of his generation - henceforth a model. A great. A really great trio.
Many sessions have never been published on record. The National Sound Archives are crammed with tapes from the Little Theatre Club or - precisely - The Plough. We could quote the trio Stevens / John Tchicai / Danny Thompson (1976) and Away (1978 or 1979). This record could be the first in a set of documents - serious, at last - about one of the most important musicians that jazz - in its widest meaning - has begotten, often in pains but also in our greatest happiness of listeners.
Philippe Renaud
Translation : Guillaume Tarche
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