Spontaneous Music Ensemble
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The Spontaneous Music Ensemble was a loose collection of free improvising musicians, convened in 1965 by the late South London-based jazz drummer/trumpeter John Stevens and alto and soprano saxophonis
The SME playing in Islington, London, 1991. Roger Smith plays guitar and Nigel Coombes plays violin. John Stevens plays drums and cornet out of frame.
Derek Bailey (guitarist)
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Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and an important figure in the free improvisation movement. Bailey abandoned conventional performance techniques found in jazz, exploring atonality, n
Spontaneous Music Ensemble
…quartet album Biosystem (Incus, 1977), which also featured cellist Colin Wood. Countless other musicians passed through the SME over the years, including Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Maggie Nichols, Dave Holland, Barry Guy, Peter Kowald and Kent Carter. The final edition of the group was a trio of Stevens, Smith…
Bailey at the Vortex Club, 1991
Derek Bailey performing at the ICA Company Week, 1978