John Stevens (drummer)

John William Stevens ( born June 10, 1940 in Brenford, England; † September 13, 1994 in Ealing, London ) was a British jazz drummer ( and occasionally played the trumpet ).

Life

After school and university time in Ealing Stevens studied at the Music School of the Royal Air Force and played in military bands, where he met Paul Rutherford and Trevor Watts. At this time he was particularly interested in Skiffle, Traditional Jazz and Modern Jazz; some appearances with Francy Boland, Tubby Hayes and others are at this time. 1964/65 he worked in London with Ronnie Scott, Stan Tracey and Hayes. He also played in a quartet with Ian Carr, John McLaughlin and Jeff Clyne. In 1965 he formed a private septet, which included Kenny Wheeler, Alan Skidmore and Ron Mathewson. Almost simultaneously, he and Trevor Watts, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble to explore specific improvisations, even without prescribed framework (theme, tempo, etc. ) and agreements on length and patterns.

The Spontaneous Music Ensemble (notably in the late 1960s ) as well as he organized evening concerts in the Little Theatre Club in the City of Westminster ( London) to the reference point of the young generation of British jazz musicians - by Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Howard Riley, Maggie Nicols, Julie Tippett to Barry Guy and James Muir. At the beginning of the 1970s his interest in more clearly defined rhythms and structures. He founded the group Splinters (1971 ), the John Stevens Dance Orchestra ( 1974), and the jazz-rock band Away (1975, inter alia, with Allan Holdsworth ). Later, the groups freebop and Folkus emerged. In addition, he worked with Bobby Bradford, Steve Lacy, John Tchicai, Yoko Ono, Dudu Pukwana, Johnny Dyani, Pierre Dørge, but also in a trio with songwriter John Martyn and Danny Thompson.

In 1983, Stevens was the musical director of the Outreach Community Music Project of the British Jazz Centre Society; then he was the driving force behind the Community Music Limited, an independent foundation that took the music therapeutic function freely improvised music in children and in psychiatry and advanced. Shortly before his death, Stevens completed his work Celebration with Voices for large choir, string quartet and jazz octet.

Stevens was instrumental in the development of the British free jazz and its further developments.