John Stevens (1940–1994) met Paul Rutherford and Trevor Watts in the mid-1960s and together they founded the Spontaneous Music Ensemble in 1965, which was to become one of the nucleuses of British free jazz and European free improvisation. Especially in the late 1960s, the SME, like the evening concerts he organized at the Little Theater Club in the City of Westminster (London), became a point of reference for the young generation of British jazz musicians – from Evan Parker to Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Howard Riley, Maggie Nicols, Julie Tippetts to Barry Guy and Jamie Muir.
Stevens developed a series of participatory pieces that enabled people with very different musical backgrounds and abilities to engage equally in creative improvisation. The pieces were published under the title Search & Reflect, creating a valuable manual for mediating and teaching improvisation. He tried out and used the pieces in countless workshops, which enabled him to train and significantly influence many musicians.
One of them is the composer and interpreter of electronic and improvised music Richard Scott, who attended Stevens’ workshops in the 1980s. He has been pursuing the idea of publicly reporting on his time with John Stevens for some time, which will now be the first occasion. Music-historical thoughts are supplemented with general considerations for teaching improvised music
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Musicians, critics and friends celebrated the legacy of drummer John Stevens (1940-1994) reflecting on his teachings and visionary spirit with talks, workshops and performances throughout all day last Saturday 22 November at the EFG London Jazz Festival 2014. Here's an excerpt from the afternoon talk between Alyn Shipton, Victor Schonfeld and Steve Beresford
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