One of the founding fathers of free improvisation in Britain. In the mid-'60s,
Stevens helped found
Spontaneous Music Ensemble (
SME), an influential group that included most of England's top experimental jazz musicians. The band's lineup evolved and fluctuated, but at one time or another
Paul Rutherford,
Trevor Watts,
Derek Bailey,
Evan Parker,
Kenny Wheeler, and
Julie Tippetts were among the members.
Stevens' father was a tap dancer, a factor in his decision to become a musician.
Stevens joined the Royal Air Force in 1958, where he studied music formally and met other like-minded musicians, in particular
Watts and
Rutherford. While in the service he played with skiffle and Dixieland bands.
Stevens' interest in jazz seems to have followed a natural curve; bebop was his first language (he played with hard bop saxophonist
Tubby Hayes), followed by the free jazz dialects of the Giuffre-Bley-Swallow trio and
Albert Ayler. He became one of the top modern jazz drummers in London during the mid-'60s. He played
Ronnie Scott's club regularly, and formed his own septet that included
Wheeler.
Around 1965, he joined a group led by
Rutherford and
Watts. The band's music became more avant-garde than was welcome in regular jazz clubs, so from 1966 they played their free jazz in the Little Theatre Club, a small theater in the West End of London. The
Rutherford-
Watts group became
Spontaneous Music Ensemble. Soon,
Wheeler joined the group, then
Evan Parker did as well.
SME recorded its first album in 1966. By 1967 the band had grown to a septet, with the addition of
Bailey and bassist
Barry Guy.
Stevens' playing became increasingly textural and minimal. At his instigation, the band's music as a whole became more subdued. Except for
Parker, the other members dropped out, and by mid-1967
Stevens had become the band's sole leader (eventually
Parker joined the ranks of the
SME's sometime members). Over the next several years such players as
Peter Kowald,
Barre Phillips,
Maggie Nicols, and
Johnny Dyani passed through
Stevens-led ensembles. In the late '70s,
Stevens used younger players:
Nigel Coombes,
Roger Smith, and
Colin Wood.
Wood dropped out in 1978, and the others played (very occasionally) as a trio until 1992. The last
SME included
Smith and saxophonist
John Butcher. The group's final album,
A New Distance, was taken from live performances recorded in the year before
Stevens' death in 1994.
While
SME was probably his most important association,
Stevens never stopped playing in other contexts, from rock to bop. At various times he led a large Spontaneous Music Orchestra and the jazz-rock group
Away.
Stevens died of a heart attack at the age of 54.
–
Chris Kelsey, Rovi