I tend to think free improvisation has run its course, and Birds of a Feather from 1971 confirms my impression. Nothing in that realm being played today comes close to the careful beauty of that group improv; what current musicians fail to achieve is the sense of newness and discovery of that first/second generation of free players.
John Martyn's best album is Solid Air, at least in my view. He was quite a difficult person. A phenomenal player though.
I saw SME in the early '70s in Edinburgh. Dudu Pukwana on pocket trumpet. I didn't understand it all and left at half time. I think I'd get it now having done some free playing myself.
Donald Thompson?? It’s Danny Thompson. And how on earth can you write an article on the great John Stevens and not mention his mid 70’s group Away? When Jazz rock/ fusion was going quickly down the toilet in the US , groups in the UK, like John Stevens Away on the Vertigo label released terrific fusion type albums . 1976’s Somewhere In Between, is simply magnificent.
I have corrected that typo. Thanks for pointing out my error. Also, I was not familiar with Away. With the volume of his work and the limits of this format, one can not possibly cover it all. Thank you for bringing up more of Stevens' work for us to discover.
So many great pieces of music under the SME name and from a fairly bewildering array of line ups but somehow they all sound like SME-music. One aspect of Stevens composition is his use of vocals, especially female and especially Julie Tippetts or Maggie Nichols or both.
This album is one that Karyobin apart is I think an SME masterpiece
I tend to think free improvisation has run its course, and Birds of a Feather from 1971 confirms my impression. Nothing in that realm being played today comes close to the careful beauty of that group improv; what current musicians fail to achieve is the sense of newness and discovery of that first/second generation of free players.
John Martyn's best album is Solid Air, at least in my view. He was quite a difficult person. A phenomenal player though.
I saw SME in the early '70s in Edinburgh. Dudu Pukwana on pocket trumpet. I didn't understand it all and left at half time. I think I'd get it now having done some free playing myself.
Donald Thompson?? It’s Danny Thompson. And how on earth can you write an article on the great John Stevens and not mention his mid 70’s group Away? When Jazz rock/ fusion was going quickly down the toilet in the US , groups in the UK, like John Stevens Away on the Vertigo label released terrific fusion type albums . 1976’s Somewhere In Between, is simply magnificent.
I have corrected that typo. Thanks for pointing out my error. Also, I was not familiar with Away. With the volume of his work and the limits of this format, one can not possibly cover it all. Thank you for bringing up more of Stevens' work for us to discover.
So many great pieces of music under the SME name and from a fairly bewildering array of line ups but somehow they all sound like SME-music. One aspect of Stevens composition is his use of vocals, especially female and especially Julie Tippetts or Maggie Nichols or both.
This album is one that Karyobin apart is I think an SME masterpiece
https://youtu.be/f-OwBnxlu0A?feature=shared
Interesting in that this album is featured in next week's journey into the world of Trevor Watts.
Stevens and in particular SME are big favourites here so I shall enjoy diving into this