Jazz Articles about Spontaneous Music Ensemble

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Frameworks

by Nic Jones
May 5, 2007

All of the freely improvised music collected here is previously unissued and, to the best of my knowledge, only the duo of percussionist John Stevens and reed player Trevor Watts has been extensively documented on record before now, notably on Face To Face (Emanem, 1973). The duo is featured on “Flower here. The piece was recorded in the same period as the music on Face to Face and it's in the same austere and minimal vein.

The thirty minutes plus ...

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Quintessence

by John Eyles
April 4, 2007

After releasing this music on two LPs and then on two CDs, Emanem now re-release it on a double CD. In the process, the performances are put into a more sensible order. The vast bulk of their 1974 ICA concert (seventy-five out of the eight-five minutes) is now together on one CD. This concert featured the “superstar" line-up of John Stevens, Evan Parker, Trevor Watts, Derek Bailey and Kent Carter, not the usual SME line up of the time.

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Frameworks

by John Eyles
April 3, 2007

Increasingly, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble recordings released on Emanem (which now number ten CDs, not including Spontaneous Music Orchestra releases) resemble the pieces of a large and intricate jigsaw puzzle. The recordings span some twenty-eight years, at least twenty-five recording occasions ("sessions not being the appropriate word) and numerous line-ups--John Stevens being the only ever-present participant.

Despite this proliferation, each new release brings fresh insights into this vital and pioneering group. This CD adds three more key pieces to the ...

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Biosystem

by John Eyles
October 7, 2006

Emanem has been the bastion of SME releases for years now; without the label, John Stevens' legacy would be a fading memory, despite his lasting influence on a generation of players. However, this SME release--dating from 1977--appears on Psi rather than Emanem, as it was originally released on Incus (incidentally, making it the first Incus re-release on Psi not to feature Evan Parker).

This recording was a radical departure for SME; it saw the grouping completely move away from horns ...

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: A New Distance

by John Eyles
July 8, 2005

We all owe great thanks to Emanem, without whom there would be very little music available by the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. The archive of SME recordings on the label now numbers twelve, ranging from Challenge, recorded in 1966-7, when free improvisation was in its infancy, through to these recordings from 1993-4, not long before John Stevens' premature death in September 1994. In the intervening years, SME personnel changed many times, with Stevens being the only constant member, but its working ...

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Coming Together

by Nic Jones
April 4, 2004

Although the jazz vocabulary is undoubtedly American in origin, with the passing of time and the evolution jazz has arguably become a pejorative term for the making of improvised music. The improvisational element reaches its logical conclusion in music that is freely improvised, that is to say music that is free of all predetermined elements and the structure of which is of the moment.

Free improvisation has followed a more international path than did jazz as such in the earliest ...

Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Challenge

by AAJ Staff
September 1, 2001

For the world of free improvisation, Challenge marks a major milestone. It represents the first recording of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, longtime standard-bearers of British free improv. Parts of this record were briefly released on the Eyemark label (which otherwise specialized in recordings of steam engines and opera spoofs!), but two tunes here never made it onto wax at all. Emanem has collected these pieces for release. One can view Challenge as a launching point for a free-spirited group with ...