John Stevens was never satisfied. After coming up with a unique, viable and
highly influential method of group improvisation in the middle of 1967 (usually
referred to as 'SME Music'), he decided to introduce other elements, most notably
the Click Piece and the Sustained Piece which became the most extreme
of his pieces designed to help people into group improvising. These, and other such
concepts, began to be used in the music of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble (SME),
as can be heard on this CD.
Another change occurring early in 1968 was that Trevor Watts rejoined the SME,
after a year away from the group. He then stayed until 1976, but has always
maintained that it wasn’t really his sort of music, as can be ascertained by his
more overtly rhythmic and lyrical work before and after, as well as in his free
jazz group Amalgam which co-existed with this SME period. However, it must be said
that his work with the SME is superb – but then, he is a superlative (and much
underrated) musician.
This CD contains three previously unissued performances that all feature Stevens’
frameworks leading to group improvising. FAMILIE SEQUENCE from mid-1968
features a unusual instrumentation with three wind instruments, voice and percussion.
(An earlier, unissued studio recording of FAMILIE has the very different
instrumentation of two voices, piccolo, flute, soprano sax, piano, guitar, cello,
two double basses and percussion.) The group texture is made even more unusual by
Watts playing bass clarinet.
The first nine minutes comprise the loose theme which was heavily inspired by
Gagaku (Japanese court music). This leads to a group improvisation which is
interrupted at one point by a short section in which everyone plays glissandi
together. Then come short Sustained and Click Pieces which in turn
lead to another free improvisation which is capped off by looser versions of
Sustained and Click. The overall sequence is unlike any other on
record, although there are sections similar to other SME performances.
By the start of 1969, the SME had evolved to the line-up of Stevens, Watts,
Johnny Dyani and Maggie Nicols with Wheeler added at times. This was followed by
an unrecorded quartet with Mongezi Feza instead of Nicols and Wheeler. 1970 saw
the inclusion of several more jazz-aligned musicians into the SME, then for several
months in 1971 there was the quartet of Stevens, Watts, Julie Tippett and Ron
Herman, which some listeners regard as their favourite SME line-up. (This band has
a special place for me, since one of their concerts turned me on to the world of
free improvisation.)
Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of this quartet is the amazing interplay
between saxophone and voice. Prior to this, Julie Tippett had been a successful
pop singer (using her maiden name), but had become disillusioned with that world,
and had decided to find something else that was more spiritually satisfying to her.
Ron Herman was one of numerous young musicians discovered and encouraged by John
Stevens. He played with the SME for a few years, but died at a tragically young
age. Stevens can be heard using a glockenspiel in addition to his evolving small
drums and cymbals kit that is heard throughout this CD.
For the next couple of years, the SME was basically just Stevens and Watts,
with other people added on an ad hoc basis. During most of 1972 and 1973, the duo
SME performances were very austere, concentrating on performances of the hyper-minimalist
piece FLOWER, which is superficially similar to the Click Piece.
Most of Stevens' pieces were designed to open up into freedom - after over six
minutes of apparently mechanical playing, the version heard here changes into some
emotionally charged free improvisation. This encapsulates the way they came out
of their austere period late in 1973, culminating in the magnificent performances
collected on FACE TO FACE (Emanem 4003).
Excerpts from reviews:
"The history of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble is still full of undocumented
line-ups, revelations big and small, and other surprises. Case in point: FRAMEWORKS,
a wonderful collection of previously unavailable recordings. The three pieces
included feature three different line-ups, all improvising collectively from John
Stevens's frameworks - roughly-sketched sequences of events or directives aimed
at developing group improvisation.
The first line-up is documented here for the first time: Stevens (percussion),
Trevor Watts (on bass clarinet instead of his trusty soprano sax), Kenny Wheeler
(flugelhorn), Paul Rutherford (trombone), and jazz singer Norma Winstone. Their
Familie Sequence is a riveting slow-churning performance opening on a
gagaku-like tutti. Sound quality is surprisingly good for such an old
unissued document. The second line-up was previously known, although only from
a very badly pressed LP: Stevens, Watts, bassist Ron Herman, and singer Julie
Tippett (also playing an acoustic guitar). Their 30-minute Quartet Sequence
is simply mesmerising and stands as one of the SME's best performances by any
line-up, period. The sonic similarities between Tippett's voice and Watts's soprano
sax are eerie, sending chills down your spine every time they happen to lock on
the same note. Their dialogue steals the show, though Stevens and Herman never
quite fall back into a typical rhythm section role. The shorter Flower
features the well-documented duo of Stevens and Watts, in a performance announcing
the heights of their FACE TO FACE CD. However,
after the two longer, denser, and voice-led pieces preceding it, Flower
can't help sound like a footnote. That being said, it is no waste of time either.
FRAMEWORKS is not very significant on a historical basis, but musically
speaking, it ranks among the strongest SME collections, way up there alongside
QUINTESSENCE. Quartet Sequence is alone
worth the price of admission and has moved this reviewer to tears, more than once."
FRANÇOIS COUTURE - ALL-MUSIC GUIDE
2007
"The first two tracks are from the (relatively undocumented) period in
the late '60s and early 70s, when vocals were an important component of SME. They
feature some of the most beautiful music released by SME.
The opener, Familie Sequence, employs a line-up that, including vocalist
Norma Winstone, has not been previously heard on disc. With three wind instruments
in addition to vocals, the line-up is perfect to employ two of Stevens' frameworks
- the sustained piece (where each musician holds notes for as long as comfortable)
and the click piece (where each note must be as short as possible.) After an
introductory theme apparently influenced by Japanese court music, Familie
Sequence includes several of each framework plus freely improvised sections.
This provides a structure that is more formal than usual for SME. Winstone and
Kenny Wheeler are just as much jazz musicians as free improvisers, while Paul
Rutherford is mainly an improviser. The structure facilitates group playing that
makes such distinctions irrelevant.
Julie Tippetts was a member of SME for much of 1971, recording the out-of-print
BIRDS OF A FEATHER and 1. 2. ALBERT AYLER with this line-up.
Quartet Sequence is a stunning track, characterized by interplay between
all four players. Across its thirty minutes, there is great variety - from a
highly complex but powerful rhythmic section through a sparse, mournfully atmospheric
section in which Stevens plays glockenspiel and gong, to a closing click piece.
Shortly after Tippetts left, SME became the duo of Stevens and Watts. Their
track here, Flower, opens with some formal exchanges that are tightly
controlled by another of Stevens' frameworks. The result consists of intermittent
notes, immediately echoed by the other player, in an effect similar to a click
piece. Slowly the music becomes less restrained and towards the end there are
some freer exchanges. However, the overall feeling is of players inhibited by
the framework rather than liberated by it. Fascinating listening, though, and
also a signpost to places that improvised music has revisited in recent years."
JOHN EYLES - ALL ABOUT JAZZ 2007
"The importance of SME in the history of modern music should never be
underappreciated, and Emanem's ongoing effort to retrieve these archival gems
from obscurity is, purely and simply, a cultural enhancement for everyone.
Familie sequence starts with long notes accompanied by soft rolling-and-tumbling,
to evolve in a fully fledged creature whose parts are totally interrelated and
functional in the context of a surprisingly mature, austere kind of 'free form
minimalism'. The first section's modal aroma introduces to the core essence of
the piece, in which straightforward lines by Winstone and Wheeler mingle with
Rutherford's meticulous exploration of the trombone's nuances, Watts and Stevens
acting as neighbouring contrasting forces which drive the whole to a pre-cathartic
state. This is interrupted by staccatos and glissandos that seem to divide the
participants into different groups to finally reunite them in a collective implosion
that still allows the instruments (voice included) to librate in the air in a
last attempt of fading out of sight.
Quartet sequence sees Stevens and Watts at work with Julie Tippett and
the late Ron Herman. While I've never been a huge fan of Tippett's vocal style,
her performance here - devoid of any useless embellishment and complication -
is almost perfect, her voice dialoguing with Watts' soprano in several memorable
exchanges over a complex intertwining of double bass and drums, a noteworthy
contrapuntal research that yields large amounts of lyrical value and almost
shamanic reiteration, not to mention some exquisite acoustic guitar playing. But
the best has yet to come, in the shape of a deeply spiritual moment of communion
between the parts, a siren chant-like segment in which the instrumental voices
literally mourn their existence through our very soul in the most intense part
of the entire album. The track ends with a 'click' and a (splendid) 'sustained'
fragment, whose principles are too long to explain here: check the liners!
Flower is a Stevens/Watts duo, defined as 'hyper minimalist' by Martin
Davidson, with a reason; sax and percussion play single notes that might or might
not fall in the same place at the same moment, thus making the music sound like
an old clock about to die and let all its springs out. Silence counts a lot here,
even if the very last minutes introduce a change of sorts, Stevens' cymbals shifting
the piece towards a more elastic interaction between the two musicians."
MASSIMO RICCI - TOUCHING EXTREMES 2007
"Flower rounds out the Watts/Stevens duo session on
QUINTESSENCE; it's a Simon Says game-piece in
which each player mirrors the other, until at last they break the frame for a
free jazz finale. The half-hour Familie Sequence (1968) offers a unique
SME lineup of three horns - Watts on bass clarinet(!), Kenny Wheeler on flugelhorn,
Paul Rutherford on trombone - plus Norma Winstone's wordless vocals. The performance
grows out of a unison melody whose each note is released as slowly as a breath;
eventually, after multiple twists and turns, the piece dissolves gently into
hocketing clicks and toots. At times the music suggests a cross between Albert
Ayler and Morton Feldman's Three Voices for Joan La Barbara - though
apparently Stevens actually had Japanese gagaku in mind. Quartet
Sequence (1971), another half-hour track, documents the same SME lineup that
recorded BIRDS OF A FEATHER and 1. 2. ALBERT AYLER (both sadly out
of print). The lyrical intertwining of Watts's soprano sax and vocalist/guitarist
Julie Tippett's singing is especially memorable, and there are also spiky
contributions by the young, ill-fated bassist Ron Herman. A central section
subjecting SME's trademark scuttling interplay to teasing cuckoo-clock repetitions
is particularly unusual and effective. As with the other tracks, it's a surprise
that music this exceptional waited so long for release."
NATE DORWARD - CODA
"Familie Sequence is a beautiful thing - at the start, the musicians
hover around a sustained pitch, which quite obviously instills profound discipline
into them. Imperceptibly they 'dare' to move away from the comfort zone it provides
until a chromatic note too far bursts the floodgates, and a busy group conversation
ensues. From this slightly depersonalised starting point, snatches of Wheeler's
clubbable lyricism and Winstone's trademark turns of phrase rise to the surface,
while Stevens subtly shades from behind his kit. Quartet Sequence, with
Julie Tippett, is a confident and purposeful 30 minute construct in which the
group's old allegiance to jazz resurfaces. A Stevens-Watts duo, based on a 'click'
concept, with an impressive tautness of structural control, concludes."
PHILIP CLARK - THE WIRE
"For the SME, improvisation wasn't just a musical outlet; it was also
a guiding dictate of ensemble design. John Stevens’ imagination had few, if any,
parameters when it came to instrument and musician combinations. The three groups
documented on this new Emanem archival release illustrate the breadth of his
creativity while also highlighting some of his more formalised approaches to
group improvisation. At over a half hour in duration, Familie Sequence
from the summer of '68, is a challenging proposition at face value. The piece
starts with a series of overlapping tones from Winstone and the horns, bracketed
by arrhythmic and sometimes muffled beats from Stevens' pared down drum kit.
Winstone's wordless vocals work well in collusion with the horns and are often
quite beautiful. The first third of the piece stays largely free of any discordant
features and the floating effect produced by the absence of a consistent grounding
element is at once liberating and somewhat disconcerting. A second section moves
into more familiar free improv territory, but the final third is given over to
what Stevens called 'Sustained' and 'Click' pieces, the recipes for which are
described by Stevens' in the disc's notes, but are also explained by the shorthand
of their names. Clipped drones of varying durations and timbres ferry the piece
to conclusion.
Also hovering around a half hour, Quartet Sequence, from the spring
of '71, builds from a more familiar free improv framework. Herman's busy strident
bass and Stevens more prominent percussion give the piece a stronger rhythmic
root than its predecessor and also reveal audible free jazz influences. These
elements are especially prominent in the middle section where the four engage
in an incendiary Aylerian blowout. Tippett’s vocals make for another surprising
fit with the instruments, though her approach is quite apart from and more assertive
than that of Winstone. Flower features Stevens and Watts in a duo that
is given over mainly to minimalist, spatially gauged taps and pops. It's only
in the final minutes that the musicians expand the palette beyond metronomic
repetition and into more populous and aggressive free playing. while I can
appreciate the rubric behind Stevens’ intent, its application works better in
the service of five instruments rather than two.
Martin Davidson's accompanying notes do a thorough though succinct job of
relaying the history behind the music and the disc is definitely a learning
experience, one that I would strong encourage any student of the SME to invest."
DEREK TAYLOR - BAGATELLEN 2007
"Davidson has been able to mine the vaults for previously unreleased
sessions by SME that are of astonishing artistic quality. FRAMEWORKS
documents improvisations from three different sessions over the course of five
years. What is particularly intriguing about this release is that, as the title
suggests, it focuses on the frameworks Stevens used to spark collective improvisation.
Like Anthony Braxton, Stevens hit on the idea of cataloging timbral elements or
sound producing strategies as formal foundations-for free improvisations. The
half-hour piece, Familie Sequence, starts by layering long notes that
juxtapose the timbres of vocals, bass clarinet, and percussion off the warm
pairing of flugelhorn and trombone. Gradually, the piece builds to a collective
improvisation which then moves into structural sections based on the counterpoint
of tiny click gestures and more loose sections of sustained layers. Quartet
Sequence is about as close as SME comes to free jazz. Starting out with a
keening theme, Tippett and Watts ride over the open movement of bass and drums.
The four move on to deconstruct the theme, looping repeated elements in jagged
patterns that move increasingly toward freedom finally resolving into hushed
breathy sustains. The disc ends with a Stevens, Watts duet from 1973 recorded
at the Little Theatre club. The 9-minute improvisation begins with cycles of
austere, clipped soprano against ticks of percussion only building into more
active freedom 7 minutes in."
MICHAEL ROSENSTEIN - SIGNAL TO NOISE 2007
