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John Stevens

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

John Stevens (1940 to 1994) was an English drummer and co-founder of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. He was born in Brentford, the son of a tap dancer. As a child he listened to jazz, but drawing and painting attracted him more. At nineteen he joined the Royal Air Force, where he had drum lessons at the music school in Uxbridge. There he met Trevor Watts and Paul Rutherford, two people with whom he later collaborated a great deal.

Music and breakthrough

In the mid-1960s he played in London jazz groups, including with Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott. When he heard the American free jazz of Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, he left traditional jazz behind. In 1966, with Watts and Rutherford, he founded the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, which played in a theatre club in central London. The first album, Challenge, appeared in 1967. He then became interested in the music of Anton Webern and the group began to play more quietly. Non-Western music also attracted him. He played on Life with the Lions by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, together with John Tchicai.

Influence

Stevens devised starting points for improvisation that were not compositions. The Click Piece asked each player to play the shortest possible note, over and over. From 1983 he took his way of making music to youth clubs and psychiatric institutions, with Community Music. The book Search and Reflect, made for the Open University in 1985, is an account of that. He died in 1994 of a heart attack.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a recording by the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, such as John Stevens Spontaneous Music Ensemble from 1969, and notice the silences and the short, soft sounds with which the players respond to one another.

Discography

Studio albums

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsEuropean free improvisation