Spontaneous Music Orchestra - Directed by John Stevens in 1973: Mouthpiece

Glenn Astarita

Senior Contributor since 1997

Longtime contributor to AAJ and Downbeat, Jazz Review, EjazzNews, Radio DirectX.

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Published: August 1, 2000

Mouthpiece represents previously unreleased material from 1973 by the late John Stevens of “Spontaneous Music Ensemble” fame. And interestingly enough, there is no record of the personnel who perform here under Stevens’ direction. Hence, this large ensemble known as the “Spontaneous Music Orchestra” offers more in the way of drummer/trumpeter and visionary John Stevens’ penchant for group improvisation and interaction. Here, Stevens directs the band and performs exclusively on trumpet and somewhat surprisingly, the music and overall concepts sound amazingly fresh! Throughout, the musicians harvest a huge wall of sound via bending notes, microtonal passages from the strings and horns amid talkative dialogue and emotional outpourings. There’s even a drone-like vocal chant on “Sustained (vocal)” as the musicians seemingly pursue some sort of sacred or mystical vow, yet on the title track “Mouthpiece”, various members of the band elicit bird-like chirping sounds amid swirling charts and glaring horns. - With this release, we get another hearty glimpse of Stevens’ pioneering ways as we hope the folks at “EMANEM” continue to find or unearth worthy material of this ilk.........

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Track listing: 1) In Relationship To Silence 2) Sustained Piece (Instrumental) 3) Sustained Piece (vocal) 4) ICA Theatre 5) Ealing Technical College

( EMANEM )

Record Label: Emanem
Style: Modern Jazz