The eight-five minutes of totally improvised music produced at the 1974 ICA
concert are so cohesive that it sounds as if this quintet had worked together for
some considerable time. However, apart from a brief sound check earlier that day,
this was the only occasion that these five musicians performed together.
Derek Bailey, Evan Parker), John Stevens) and Trevor Watts had been part of the
Spontaneous Music Ensemble for a few months in 1967 [heard on WITHDRAWAL
- Emanem 4020], which performed a transitional music that
had departed from Free Jazz. What became the SME type of Free Improvisation arose
later that year when the group had reduced to the duo of Stevens and Parker
[SUMMER 1967 - Emanem 4005]. After a personnel
change in 1968, Stevens and Watts became the nucleus of the SME until 1976. In the
meantime, Bailey and Parker often performed together in various settings, and Bailey
sat in with the SME from time to time.
Kent Carter, on the other hand, first visited Britain in mid-1973 as
a member of a special Steve Lacy Quintet that also included Bailey, Stevens and
Steve Potts [SAXOPHONE SPECIAL + - Emanem 4024].
He also played with Watts and Stevens in a very different, short-lived Free Jazz
quartet led by Bobby Bradford [LOVE'S DREAM - Emanem
4096]. Although he came from a different background, Carter fitted in with the
SME very well. Another indication of his breadth came later in 1974 when he recorded
his first collection of solos and multi-tracks [BEAUVAIS CATHEDRAL - Emanem
4061].
For most of 1973, the duo SME performances of Stevens and Watts were very austere,
concentrating on performances of the hyper-minimalist piece FLOWER. This
piece was performed on October 11, and can be heard on FRAMEWORKS (Emanem
4134). The two duo pieces that preceded it that evening,
reveal other aspects of their repertoire.
In the months prior to the quintet concert, there had been several trio performances
at the Little Theatre Club. Bailey joined the Stevens/Watts duo there on at least
four occasions [DYNAMICS OF THE IMPROMTU -
Entropy 004]. There was
a trio session with Parker (which does not seem to have survived on tape) following
on from his participation in an Amalgam session, which was just about the first
time that he had worked with Stevens for several years.
The results of an informal trio session on one of Carter’s visits to London are
heard here. Three pieces were performed. The first, RAMBUNCTIOUS 1, is heard
in its entirety - it is perhaps the closest thing to Jazz on these two CDs. The
second, RAMBUNCTIOUS 2, was similar but less successful, so only the ending
is included here. The third was based on Stevens' loose composition DAA-OOM,
which takes its name from the bass part (missing in the earlier duo performance).
The performance ran out of steam after about five minutes, so only the opening is
heard. (When this session was first released, a reviewer wrote that this trio
comprised Bailey, Carter & Stevens, and even went so far to compare it with
that trio's later record!)
In the eighty-five minute ICA concert, all five musicians managed to both sound
like themselves and sound like a group - a paradox that all good improvisers solve
by listening to what the others are playing, and responding accordingly. This music
is not an example of everyone going all out for themselves regardless of everyone
else.
When John Stevens put this quintet together, he had envisioned that Derek Bailey
would play acoustic guitar and Kent Carter cello. This instrumentation never happened
in practice, since Bailey only used his unamplified '19-string (approx)' guitar
during the second quarter of THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES whilst Carter was playing
double bass, which he did for the first half of that piece. For the rest of the
concert, Bailey used his 6-string guitar with two-pedal-controlled stereo amplification,
and Carter played cello.
John Stevens' percussion kit comprised small cymbals and small drums with some
bells and woodblocks. Both Evan Parker (heard on the left) and Trevor Watts (on
the right) just(!) played soprano saxophones.
Even after listening to this music many times, it is still full of many surprises
- very pleasant surprises, that is. However, the unexpected is what one expects
when one puts five seasoned and original improvisers together. Certainly, anyone
who likes all music to be completely predictable will get very little satisfaction here.
A few weeks after this concert, there was an unrecorded quartet session - Carter
having by then returned to France. (There was also a trio
performance by Bailey, Carter and Stevens at the Unity Theatre sometime that year,
but it seems to have been forgotten since it was both untogether and unrecorded.)
Some two years later, the SME underwent a drastic change in personnel, so that none
of the musicians heard here were group members any more, apart from John Stevens.
Excerpts from reviews:
"If you want to possess only one concert of this genre of
music, the release of these two records is providential."
PHILIPPE RENAUD - NOTES 1987
"It's remarkable, really, how excellent and fresh the music
sounds. This is a full-flight demonstration of the complexities
and rewards available to good players in 1974. The key figure in
the group is probably John Stevens. He uses a kit of very small
drums and cymbals and a few percussive extras, and his playing is
consistently sparse and ingenious. It's old hat to talk about
percussionists 'colouring' the character of a group, but that is
how Stevens works - he doesn't keep time, he doesn't keep
anything. He barely even drums. There are beautiful moments
towards the end of Thirty-Five Minutes where he picks up
the cornet and the five players slide into a drone passage that's
like an extended series of codas. Of the others, Bailey is surely
more docile and accommodating than he would be now, Carter is
oblique and mysterious, Parker and Watts are like awkward twins,
one merry when the other is quiet but both of the same stripe."
RICHARD COOK - THE WIRE 1987
"Stevens' idea is for his musicians to listen to each other
and produce separate equal parts that fit together as one, and
this 1974 concert is one of the best examples of the SME on
record. Of course, Trevor Watts, Evan Parker and Derek Bailey
were crucial in creating this group improvisation concept
originally, but Kent Carter, though only an occasional member,
has fully absorbed the spirit. Sometimes stalking and pouncing on
each other in short bursts, sometimes stretching out into true
counterpoint or relaxing into more of a band sound, only once -
just before the very end - do they get anywhere near a freakout,
yet at all times their attention and the listener's is kept riveted."
VICTOR SCHONFIELD - JAZZ JOURNAL 1987
"This particular SME edition was a one-time affair, but one
wouldn't know it from the cohesiveness of the music. The three
[quintet] pieces present an excellent cross section of the
individual players' styles and strategies as well as their
various group associations. A predominant strategy associated
with the SME, the so-called 'Ping-Pong' style in which players
bounce overlapping, ever-changing sound or note riffs and motifs
off one another, is present throughout. This is combined with
several other tactics, including the rich layering of sounds, the
blending and contrasting of ideas, and the sensitive dropping-out
of particular players. Bailey and Carter do a fine job of
providing an ever shifting backdrop, subtly and constantly
influencing the overall sound and direction of the
improvisations. Stevens provides a bubbling rhythmic undercurrent
with his semi-toy kit, as well as a warbling commentary via
amateurish though effective cornet work. The two sopranos dance
around one another with both healthy tension and co-operation. In
fact, tension, co-operation, and spontaneity are the watchwords
of this concert. Five excellent players work strongly here as
individuals and as a unit, making music not only for the moment,
but for posterity as well."
MILO FINE - JAZZ FORUM 1987
Among the Lone Wolf Indie 100 chosen in PULSE! - the
magazine of Tower Records USA 1997.
Among the top 15 reissues of 1997 chosen by readers of CADENCE.
Among of the 10 best CDs of 1997 chosen by HENRY KAISER:
"I think that this 1974 performance is just about the finest
single performance of free-improvised music that I know of. The
late Stevens was one of the primary forces behind the development
of the English free improvisation movement that took the
Afro-American free jazz developed by Coleman, Taylor, Ra, Ayler
and Coltrane off into completely unexplored territory. On this CD
you hear musicians playing music that is complete and
unprecedented. Five players making the biggest musical paradigm
jump that I know of. Difficult to access for many, I know, but
for me there is more MUSIC and IMPROVISATION here per second than
just about any other recording that I've ever heard."
HENRY KAISER - EAST BAY EXPRESS 1997
"Both Watts and Parker play soprano throughout. At that point,
their styles were very close and there are times when the echoing
of phrases between them reminds me of Bailey's later work with
multiphonics. Bailey's playing is fully mature on these tracks.
Carter's contribution is vital: this is after all a highly
interactive music where everyone makes a difference. Hearing
these discs I wish Carter had been around longer, rather than
just dropping in for a while. Stevens is as much on a knife-edge
as ever, continually goading the others to excel themselves,
never letting the music rest in a comfortable groove for more
than a microsecond."
RICHARD LEIGH - RESONANCE 1997
"(1) The previously issued Forty Minutes displays a
marvellous close-knit group cohesion based on instrumental
symmetries. Parker's and Watts' soprano saxophones are often to
be heard exploring related areas of the altissimo register, while
Bailey's fractured, irascible amplified guitar complements
Carter's mellow pizzicato. Remaining tracks consist of three
previously unissued 1973 trio performances by Stevens, Watts and
Carter; the first and most compelling Rambunctious 1 is
busy yet memorably sensitive. Stevens' light and breezy shifts of
energy and emphasis on a few small drums and his delicate,
quick-witted used of cymbals, are truly mesmerising.
(2) The previously released Thirty-Five Minutes and
Ten Minutes provide further evidence that this was indeed a
very special gig. Two previously unissued tracks feature the
Stevens/Watts duo version of SME. Corsop for cornet and
soprano saxophone has strong dialogic elements with both players
listening intently and working beyond mere call and response
patterns. The distinctive Daa-Oom hears Stevens' strange
African pygmy-influenced vocals fervently echoed by soprano sax -
long at 10 minutes, but sufficiently outlandish to hold the attention."
CHRIS BLACKFORD - RUBBERNECK 1997
"Here is collective improvising that's almost twenty-five
years old, conveying state of the art freshness and the alert
edge of explorers navigating a new frontier. Forty Minutes
is a masterpiece of collective improvisation, and belongs in
every music collection."
DAVID LEWIS - CADENCE 1997
"The three [quintet] pieces are collective improvisations of
extraordinary depth and sympathy, work filled with a rare quiet
intensity. The greatest achievement of the SME may have been its
transparency, the sense of space and clarity that it maintained
through Stevens' devotion to sparseness and close listening. That
close listening is heightened here by the twinning of musicians.;
Parker and Watts play only soprano saxophones, while Carter
frequently plays cello, putting him closer to the range of
Bailey's guitar. If you missed this music the first time around,
it's essential hearing, perhaps purer in its improvisatory ethic
than current work in the idiom."
STUART BROOMER - CODA 1998
"The 40 minute piece stands high on top of anything available
by the SME: the true quintessence of Stevens' vision can be heard
as the musicians give the best of themselves, remaining very
personal in their playing (just compare Parker and Watts all the
way through) while constantly keeping the focus on the group and
the music happening here and now. Beautiful.
The level of abstract bliss reached on Forty Minutes is
not matched, but Thirty-Five Minutes and Ten
Minutes are still suitable complements: knowing that these
five musicians had never played as a group before, the two
improvisations impress by their level of listening and synergy."
FRANÇOIS COUTURE -
ALL-MUSIC GUIDE 2001
"One of the most beautiful improv sets I've heard."
MARC MEDWIN - DUSTED MAGAZINE 2005
"One of the most beautiful EMANEM CD's ever!! Fantastic music, incredible
clear and finely detailed quality recording work and beautiful presentation. It's
a perfect product!! A quintessence!"
KRIS VANDERSTRAETEN - private email 2007
"Never was an album so aptly named. Recorded on February 3rd 1974 at
London's ICA, these 85 minutes of music created by John Stevens (percussion,
cornet), Derek Bailey (guitars), Kent Carter (cello and bass) and soprano
saxophonists Evan Parker and Trevor Watts stand as one of the greatest, perhaps
the greatest, documents of free improvisation, full stop, period. Some might
marvel that this was the first time all five men had actually played together,
though considering that they'd already worked with each other in various combinations
for several years, the extraordinary near-telepathic interplay between them and
the quality of the music it helped create should come as no surprise. In improv,
sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time it's better
when it is happening, but even if it isn't it can be fun; mistakes, wrong turns
down blind alleys, slight misunderstandings or even cussed bloody-mindedness can
lead to some great music, and improvisers as different as Misha Mengelberg and
Jack Wright have created a lifetime's worth of fine music by thriving on such
tension. Others prefer to nurture longlasting relationships, Evan Parker being
the most obvious example - his trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton has been around
for about a quarter of a century, and the Schlippenbach Trio with Alex von Schlippenbach
and Paul Lovens a decade longer than that. But however one choose to plan out
one's career, or whoever one chooses to play with, it all boils down to the same
thing: improv is created in the moment, and in QUINTESSENCE there is, as
the old cliché goes, never a dull moment. Never.
I could make quite a long list of such moments and attempt to draw your attention
to what's going on in each of them ('check out Bailey and Carter at 16:45 in
Forty Minutes (part 1) etc.) but what would be the point? You know how
to listen, for Chrissakes. Or least you should do by now - if not what are you
doing with this album in your CD player? But if by chance you don't, or you're
coming to free improvisation for the very first time, these gentlemen will show
you how to listen. And you'll listen hard - give this music the attention it
deserves and you'll be as exhausted and exhilarated after it's over as these
guys must have been that memorable night 33 years ago.
Davidson originally released QUINTESSENCE as two LPs in 1986, and again
on CD in 1997. With his typical concern for filling up the compact disc with as
music as can comfortably contain (there's so much information on an Emanem disc
you often think it might spontaneously combust), this double CD package also
includes performances from the Little Theatre Club in October 1973 - three trio
tracks featuring Stevens, Watts and Carter (on double bass this time) and a couple
of gems by the Stevens / Watts duo, including the amazing Corsop, whose
explorations of tiny twitters and tweets often at the threshold of audibility
seem to point forward to the lowercase improv that became à la mode over
two decades later (drop the needle near the end and you could swear it's nmperign).
The trio version of the raw, Ayler-inspired Daa-Oom (Stevens' wild yodels
were described variously as 'ghastly' and 'virtuosic' - you decide which adjective
best applies) apparently 'ran out of steam' after five minutes, but it's a hell
of a five minutes, and makes for a fine comparison with the ten-minute duo version
that rounds off the disc.
This is real Desert Island Discs stuff, and I'm left wondering why it didn't
make it to the awfully self-indulgent Top 40 I compiled for these pages nearly
four years ago. Remind me to put that situation right for 2013's Top 50. Meanwhile,
I could quite happily listen to these two discs for the next six years, secure
in the knowledge that I'll be as surprised and moved by the thrilling music they
contain at each subsequent listen. Make sure you are too: if you missed out on
the earlier releases of QUINTESSENCE, please don't miss out on this."
DAN WARBURTON - PARIS TRANSATLANTIC 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.
Forty Minutes is frequently cited as one of the best free improvised
group performances ever, and it is not difficult to hear the reason. Each of the
five players is instantly recognizable and distinguishable from the others, and
each is playing near the top of his form. However, the level of group empathy
and interaction is such that one could imagine it was the product of long periods
of rehearsal. Extraordinarily, this was the only time that the five ever played
together.
Stevens' drums are placed right in the centre of the stereo mix, making
everything else seem to revolve around him. But this is not true musically. While
some of his devices are in evidence - for instance, there is an obvious 'sustained
piece' towards the end of the track - this comes across as a group without an
obvious leader, a group of five equals. The remainder of the concert, Thirty
Five Minutes and Ten Minutes, maintains the same high standard, making
the entirety a very stimulating experience, one that has stood the test of time
and continues to deliver.
The album is completed by duo and trio pieces recorded at the Little Theatre
Club in October 1973. While these do not reach the heights of the ICA concert,
they are far more than fillers. Rambunctious 1, by Stevens, Watts and
Carter, successfully spans the jazz-improv border. The bass and drums retain the
status of equal partners in the trio, whilst the saxophone constructs passages
more like conventional solos. The track has an appealing intimacy, as a mike
occasionally picks up throwaway comments of appreciation and shouts of enthusiasm
(possibly made by Stevens).
Daa-Oom (in both duo and trio versions) sets Stevens' yodelling and
yelling voice against Watts' soprano sax, with each mirroring the other and
occasionally attempting to outdo each other both in volume and coarseness of tone.
Corsop features a similar duo, this time for cornet and saxophone. It also
contains a contrasting section with playing at barely audible levels.
For those who already own this music, the repackaged and reformatted version
represents a distinct improvement. For those who don't this is a welcome opportunity
to experience the music for the first time."
JOHN EYLES - ALL ABOUT JAZZ 2007
"QUINTESSENCE compiles three dates from 1973 and 1974, most importantly
an 85-minute quintet gig from the ICA Theatre by one of the finest SME lineups:
aside from John Stevens (playing cornet as well as drums), there's the extraordinary
pairing of Trevor Watts and Evan Parker on soprano saxophones, as well as Derek
Bailey on guitar and the visiting American cellist/bassist Kent Carter. Though
the music is so eventful it's like watching an agitated cloud of tiny insects,
it is never haphazard: cup your hands and momentarily trap one of the creatures
flying about, and you'll discover a perfectly formed micro-melody. Stevens's
typically dry, barebones drum kit yields an extraordinarily rich and controlled
range of sounds, from delicate taps to lopsided hi-hat gnashings. Parker and
Watts fashion countless throwaway Lacy melodies from a reduced palette of chirps
and twitters, while Bailey and Carter add slower, richer brushstrokes behind
them. The other two sessions on the set - a Watts/Stevens duo and a trio with
Carter - are well worth hearing but less achieved; the quintet gig, though, is
one for the ages.!"
NATE DORWARD - CODA 2007
"I still remember picking up SME's EIGHTY-FIVE MINUTES on LP almost
20 years ago. The intense, prickly interaction of Stevens, Derek Bailey, Evan
Parker, Trevor Watts, and Kent Carter was revelatory. Like The Music Improvisation
Company on ECM and Parker, Bailey, and Han Bennink's
TOPOGRAPHY OF THE LUNGS, here was an approach
to improvisation that posited a new vocabulary; a new way of group playing. While
this had been available on CD at one point, QUINTESSENCEreissues the two
LPs in their entirety, placing the two long improvisations on one CD and the
shorter 10-minute coda on a second CD. By the early '70s, SME fluctuated between
mid-sized groups and more austere settings, often with just Stevens and Watts.
These two sets bring Bailey and Parker back in to the fold, adding bassist Kent
Carter, who'd visited London several times in the mid-'70s. Here are five masters
pushing each other while ever mindful of the collective aspect of the ensemble.
While there are many areas of full-on intensity, one is struck with the open
sound of the group and the constantly shifting dynamic planes of the music. The
reissue is filled out with two sets from 1973, a trio with Stevens, Watts, and
Carter, and a Stevens, Watts duet. The trio setting results are a bit uneven.
Never one to skimp on filling out his CDs, Davidson includes two more pieces
from a '73 duo set from the Little Theatre. The first piece pairs breathy blats
and pinched microtones from Watts' soprano and Stevens' cornet. The final piece
with shredded raw reed preying against Stevens' ululating vocals makes for unnerving
listening. Even if the second disc isn't essential, it's great to have the quintet
music back in print."
MICHAEL ROSENSTEIN - SIGNAL TO NOISE 2007
"QUINTESSENCE is a consistent collection, containing what many
define as one of the best documents ever of improvised music - the 1974 concert
at the ICA theatre by John Stevens, Evan Parker, Trevor Watts, Derek Bailey and
Kent Carter - plus a clutch of interesting material that, in typical fashion,
range from the viscerally absorbing to the almost irritating, always stimulating
a reaction from the listeners who can't possibly remain in standstill mode when
fronting this kind of impromptu expression. The ICA performance is alone worth
of the whole set. The interaction between reeds and strings is often phenomenal,
the ability of the players to maintain single-minded lucidity amidst ruptures,
outbursts and yells totally impressive. In the most 'regulated' sections the
quintet reaches Webernesque concentrated fragmentariness while maintaining a
stunning cohesion throughout, Stevens hitting at the different parts of his
instrument with elegant informality and genuine recklessness, Carter and Bailey
pummelling, tickling and caressing the wood and the metal, Parker and Watts in
reciprocal recognition, constant imitation, total abandon. Conjuring up words
for music so dramatically intense is difficult to the level of pointlessness;
a classic case of 'let the sounds do the talking'. The second disc presents
chronicles from the trio (same personnel minus Bailey and Parker) and the duo
(Stevens and Watts). This is unmistakably a wholly dissimilar proposition, at
times slightly weaker but still comprising passages that clock-punching musicians
can only hope to play once or twice in a lifetime while, for artists of this
calibre, this is just another beer at the pub. Stevens uses vocalisations - very
much in a shaman-like approach - in the two versions of Daa-Oom, his
interaction with Watts an acrid symbolism of earthly energies, and in Rambunctious
1; be warned that if this sort of concoction is an unusual presence in your
life, patience could be seriously tested. But a piece like the above mentioned
Rambunctious 1 features levels of interplay that most jazzbos will dream
of, a fierce autonomy tasted with every morsel. As for other SME releases on Emanem,
an obligatory stop for those who are serious in studying the laws of free playing."
MASSIMO RICCI - TOUCHING EXTREMES 2007
