John William Stevens (10 June 1940 – 13 September 1994)

Stevens also devised a number of basic starting points for improvisation. These were not "compositions" as such, but rather a means of getting improvisational activity started, which could then go off in any direction. One of these was the so-called "Click Piece" which essentially asked for each player to repeatedly play a note as short as possible.

Stevens played alongside a large number of prominent free improvisors in the SME, including Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Julie Tippetts and Robert Calvert, but from the mid-1970s, the make-up of the SME began to settle down to a regular group of Stevens, Nigel Coombes on violin, and Roger Smith on guitar. During the mid-1970s Stevens played regularly with guitarist and songwriter John Martyn as part of a trio that included bassist Danny Thompson. In the late 70s and early 1980s, John was a regular performer at the Bracknell Jazz Festival.

Stevens ran or helped to organise groups that were more jazz or jazz-rock based, such as Splinters, the John Stevens Dance Orchestra, Away, Freebop, Folkus, Fast Colour, PRS, and the John Stevens Quintet and Quartet.

Discography

  • John Stevens Spontaneous Music Ensemble (Marmalade, 1969)
  • John Stevens' Away (Vertigo, 1975)
  • Somewhere in Between (Vertigo, 1976)
  • Touching On (View, 1977)
  • Chemistry (Vinyl, 1977)
  • The Longest Night Vol. 1 with Evan Parker (Ogun, 1977)
  • No Fear with Trevor Watts, Barry Guy (Spotlite, 1978)
  • The Longest Night Vol. 2 with Evan Parker (Ogun, 1978)
  • Ah! (Vinyl, 1978)
  • Endgame with Barry Guy, Howard Riley, Trevor Watts (Japo, 1979)
  • Application Interaction and... (Spotlite, 1979)
  • Integration (Red, 1979)
  • 4,4,4 with Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy (View, 1980)
  • Conversation Piece Part 1 & 2 with Gordon Beck, Alan Holdsworth (View, 1980)
  • Bobby Bradford with John Stevens and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble Volume One (Nessa, 1980)
  • Bobby Bradford with John Stevens and the Spontaneous Music Ensemble Volume Two (Nessa, 1981)
  • Freebop (Affinity, 1982)
  • Re Touch with Alan Holdsworth, Jeff Young, Barry Guy, Ron Mathewson (View, 1983)
  • Backwards and Forwards, Forwards and Backwards with Frode Gjerstad, Johnny Dyani (Impetus, 1983)
  • The Life of Riley (Affinity, 1984)
  • Radebe They Shoot to Kill with Dudu Pukwana (Affinity, 1987)
  • Playing with Derek Bailey (Incus, 1993)
  • This That with Dick Heckstall-Smith, Jack Bruce (Atonal, 1994)
  • Mutual Benefit (Konnex, 1994)
  • New Cool (The Jazz Label, 1994)
  • A Luta Continua (Konnex, 1994)
  • One Time with Kent Carter, Derek Bailey (Incus, 1995)
  • Seven Improvisations with Gary Smith (1995)
  • Bird in Widnes with Dick Heckstall-Smith (Konnex, 1995)
  • Sunshine with Frode Gjerstad (Impetus, 1996)
  • Dynamics of the Impromptu with Derek Bailey (Entropy Stereo, 1999)
  • Hello Goodbye with Frode Gjerstad, Derek Bailey (Emanem, 2001)
  • Organic with Howard Riley, Barry Guy (Jazzprint, 2002)
  • Live at the Plough (Ayler, 2003)
  • Keep on Playing with Frode Gjerstad (FMR, 2005)
  • Propensity with Allan Holdsworth, Danny Thompson (Art of Life, 2009)

With the Spontaneous Music Ensemble

  • Quintessence (Emanem, 1974 [1986])

References

  • Biography and Discography
  • Obituary in The Independent