Edwin Prévost is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 drummer

Drummer

A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...

 and percussionist.

Prévost began as a jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 drummer before branching out into entirely improvised music. He was a co-founder of the group AMM

AMM (group)

AMM are an important British free improvisation group, founded in London, England in 1965.AMM have never been well known to the general public, but have been incredibly influential on the field of improvised music...

, and remains its only constant member. Prévost has worked with several prominent jazz musicians, including saxophonist Lou Gare

Lou Gare

Lou Gare is an English free-jazz saxophonist born in Rugby, Warwickshire, perhaps best known for his works with the improvised music ensemble AMM and playing with musicians such as Eddie Prévost, Mike Westbrook, Cornelius Cardew, Keith Rowe and Sam Richards...

.

In 1965, along with tenor saxophonist Lou Gare

Lou Gare

Lou Gare is an English free-jazz saxophonist born in Rugby, Warwickshire, perhaps best known for his works with the improvised music ensemble AMM and playing with musicians such as Eddie Prévost, Mike Westbrook, Cornelius Cardew, Keith Rowe and Sam Richards...

, bassist Lawrence Sheaff and guitarist Keith Rowe

Keith Rowe

Keith Rowe is an English free improvisation tabletop guitarist and painter. Rowe is a founding member of both the hugely influential AMM in the mid-1960s and M.I.M.E.O. Having trained as a visual artist, Rowe's paintings have been featured on most of his own albums...

, Prévost made a radical break with jazz, a music that had inspired these English musicians but couldn’t accommodate their rapidly expanding aesthetic concerns. Their dedicated inquiry into the terms of spontaneous creativity led them to reinvent music as a dialogue with the world beyond the limits of conventional musical discourse. They formed AMM

AMM (group)

AMM are an important British free improvisation group, founded in London, England in 1965.AMM have never been well known to the general public, but have been incredibly influential on the field of improvised music...

, soon to be joined by distinguished composer Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...

, an improvisation ensemble that has exerted influence internationally across a wide range of kinds of music, from contemporary composition to psychedelic rock, ambient soundscapes and industrial noise. During the late 1960s AMM occasionally played on the same bill as Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

. In 1968 American composer Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff (composer)

Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...

 spent his year in London as a member of AMM.

In the course of AMM’s rigorous scrutiny of music’s internal and external relations and of sound itself, Prévost revised his understanding of the nature and potential of percussion. He bowed cymbals, used drums as resonant amplifying ‘sound boxes’, incorporated ‘found objects’ into a growing battery of percussive elements that now includes gongs and a huge stringed contra-bass drum. He examined the very grain of the material at hand.

At the same time Prévost has remained at home with the jazz drum kit and those conventional techniques associated with it. Jazz has had a distinct referential role within several groups Prévost has been involved with, from The Eddie Prévost Band of the late 1970s with Geoff Hawkins on tenor, bassist Marcio Mattos and trumpeter Gerry Gold; to his trio; the Eddie Prévost Trio which began in the 1990s with Tom Chant and John Edwards and to a recent ensemble with saxophonist Alan Wilkinson and bassist Joe Williamson.

Prévost still performs regularly with AMM (which currently consists of pianist John Tilbury

John Tilbury

John Tilbury is a British pianist. He is considered one of the foremost interpreters of Morton Feldman's music, and since 1980 has been a member of the free improvisation group AMM.- Early life and education :...

 and himself). The vital dynamic of all Prévost’s work is creative response to a specific context. His varied and ongoing discoveries within AMM, and his refinement of that group’s meta-musical philosophy, extend into his solo playing and into other diverse alignments, such as 9!, Sakada (with the live electronics and computers of Mattin and Rosy Parlane) or the trio with Jim O’Rourke

Jim O'Rourke (musician)

Jim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...

 and Takehisa Kosugi that accompanied Merce Cunningham

Merce Cunningham

Mercier "Merce" Philip Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of the American avant-garde for more than 50 years. Throughout much of his life, Cunningham was considered one of the greatest creative forces in American dance...

’s dance company in 1998.

Prévost’s life as a musician has encompassed encounters with an extraordinary range of instrumentalists including Evan Parker

Evan Parker

Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...

, Barry Guy

Barry Guy

Barry John Guy is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe...

, Paul Rutherford (trombone player)

Paul Rutherford (trombone player)

Paul William Rutherford was an English free improvising trombonist.-Biography:Born in Greenwich, South East London, Rutherford initially played saxophone but switched to trombone...

, Tony Moore

Tony Moore

Tony Moore may refer to:* Tony P. Moore, Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly* Tony Moore , comic book artist on titles such as The Walking Dead, Fear Agent, and The Exterminators...

, Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff (composer)

Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...

, Marilyn Crispell

Marilyn Crispell

Marilyn Crispell is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:Crispell studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has been a resident of Woodstock, NY since 1977 when she came to study and teach at Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio...

, John Wolf Brennan

John Wolf Brennan

John Wolf Brennan is an Irish pianist, organist, melodica player, and composer based out of Switzerland.Brennan's family moved to Switzerland when he was seven years old. He took piano lessons from age eleven, but played bass guitar in a rock band in 1970 before returning to keyboards in 1974 to...

, Simon Picard, Shiku Yanu, Veryan Weston, Howard Riley, Max Eastley, Phillip Wachsman, Akemi Kuniyoshi, John Edwards, Tom Chant, Dave Jackman’s ‘Organum’, Yoshikazu Iwamoto, and Derek Bailey. As well as improvising and playing free jazz Prévost has performed challenging experimental compositions, especially those of his former associate Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew

Cornelius Cardew was an English experimental music composer, and founder of the Scratch Orchestra, an experimental performing ensemble. He later rejected the avant-garde in favour of a politically motivated "people's liberation music".-Biography:Cardew was born in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire...

. Prévost has also subsequently collaborated with other rock-oriented groups, including GOD, Main and Sonic Boom’s ‘Experimental Audio Research.’ He has created music for experimental filmmakers — most notably Malcolm LeGrice, Vlasto Sudar and Gina Tornatore. He has played in most European countries including Russia, Lithuania and Turkey, in the USA, Canada and Japan and has convened workshops in Europe and America as well as in the UK.

In addition to making music Prévost lectures, writes, edits and publishes. His writings about the aesthetic priority of improvisation have appeared in numerous arts and music magazines e.g. Marina d’Art (Spain), Influenza (Denmark), Bad Alchemy (Germany), British Journal of Music Education (UK), Contact (UK), The Wire (UK) and Contemporary Music Review (UK). His keynote address to the 1999 Colloquium (part of the Guelph Jazz Festival) was reprinted in ‘The Other Side of Nowhere — jazz, improvisation, and communities in dialogue’ Ed. Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble, Wesleyan UP, 2004. From his home in Essex he runs the estimable imprint Matchless Recordings and its print offshoot Copula, which has published Prévost’s own books, Minute Particulars and No Sound Is Innocent, and recently issued an invaluable collection of essays, articles and statements by Cornelius Cardew. He has also been an active member of several organizations established to promote improvisation and creative music-making.

For nine years, Prévost has convened a weekly workshop on Friday nights in London. This has attracted over 300 musicians representing some 20 or more nationalities.

“Definition of self can only occur within voluntary limitations of activity and expression. To prevent these limitations from solidifying into self-deceiving patterns of conceit, they have to be placed with confident uncertainty into the extra-personal life of community, the musical collective but also other communities.”
EP, No Sound Is Innocent COPULA 1995

Other recordings

1969
SILVER PYRAMID
Music Now Ensemble performing Eddie Prévost’s text/visual piece Silver Pyramid including Lou Gare, Cornelius Cardew, Eddie Prévost Keith Rowe and others many of who becmae part of The Scratch Orchestra. Recorded at the Roundhuse in London on 4 May 1968 as part of a Music Now festival. Released as a CD in 2001
Matchless Recordings MRCD40

1976
NOW-HERE-THIS-THEN
Eddie Prévost Band
Gold/Hawkins/Mattos/Prévost
Spotlite SPJ 505

1977
LIVE VOLS 1 & 2
Eddie Prévost Band
Gold/Hawkins/Mattos/Prévost
Matchless Recordings MRLP1 & 2
re-released on a single CD in 1993 MRCD01/02

1983
CONTINUUM
Eddie Prévost Quartet
Mattos/Prévost/Stabbins/Weston
Matchless Recordings MRLP07
new CD version MRCD07 released in 1999 with additional material from 1985
HANDSCAPES
Akemi Kunishoshi-Kuhn Trio
Akemi Kuniyoshi-Kuhn piano/Marcio Mattos double bass/Eddie Prévost drums

1984
SUPERSESSION
Guy/Parker/Prévost/Rowe
Matchless Recordings MRCD17

1985
MILLER’S TALES
Steve Miller Trio
Steve Miller piano/Tony Moore double bass/Eddie Prévost drums
meets Lol Coxhill
Matchless Recordings MRDLP09
RESOUNDINGS
Peter McPhail saxophones/flute/Tony Moore double bass/Eddie Prévost drums
Matchless Recordings MRLP08
new CD version MRCD08 released in 2000 with additional material from 1986
FLAYED/CRUX
Prévost/Organum
Silent Records SR8704
re-released as a CD in 1995 by Matchless Recordings MRCD27

1989
PREMONITIONS
free jazz quartet
Harrison Smith saxophones,b.cla./fl./ Paul Rutherford trombone
Tony Moore cello/Eddie Prévost drums
Matchless Recordings MRCD18.

1990
GOD
God
Pathological PPP106
SPHYX
Organum: Chrisyoph Heemann, David Jackman, Jim O’Roirke, Eddie Prévost, Dinah Jane Rowe
Robot Records RR -30
1990/92
THIRD DAY STRAIGHT MADE PUBLIC
Jim O’Rourke guitar /Eddie Prévost percussion
Complacency CPCD9302

1992
BEYOND THE PALE
E(xperimental) A(udio) R(esearch)
Sonic Boom/Kevin Martin/Kevin Shields/Eddie Prévost
Big Cat Records ABB96CD

1993/95
PHENOMEMA 256
E(xperimental) A(udio) R(esearch
Sonic Boom/Eddie Prévost/Kevin Martin/Tom Prentice/Scott riley/Peter Bain/Alf Hardy
Space Age Recordings
Orbit 005LP

1994
BAND ON THE WALL
Marilyn Crispell piano / Eddie Prévost drums
Matchless Recordings MRCD25
ALPHA LEMUR ECHO TWO
Jim O’Rourke, Eddie Prévost, Michael Prime
Mycophile SPOR 05

1996
LOCI OF CHANGE - Sounds and Sensibility
Solo percussion
Matchless Recordings MRCD32

1997
MILLENNIUM MUSIC - A Meta Musical Portrait
E(xperimetal) A(udio) R(esearch)
Kember/Prévost/Prentice/Bain
Atavistic ALP72CD
MOST MATERIALL
Evan Parker saxophones / Eddie Prévost percussion
Matchless Recordings MRCD33 (double)
TOUCH
- The Weight, Measure and Feel of Things
Eddie Prévost Trio
Tom Chant soprano saxophone / John Edwards double bass / Eddie Prévost drums
Matchless Recordings MRCD34.
EN.TROPO.LOGY
Simon Picard tenor saxophone/John Wolf Brennan piano, prepared piano and electronics/
Eddie Prévost drums and percussion
For 4 Ears CD1036 (released 2000)
THE KONER EXPERIMENT
Experimental Audio Research Sonc Boom, Kevin Martin, Eddie Prevost, Kevin Shields, Thomas Koner and Andy Mellwig
Mille Plateaux 36

1998
CONCERT, v.
Eddie Prévost drums & Veryan Weston piano
Matchless Recordings MRCD37
THE ISSUE AT HAND
Such
Yoshikazu Iwamoto shakuhachi/John Tilbury piano/ Eddie Prévost percussion
Matchless Recordings MRCD38 (double)

2000
ORE
Derek Bailey and Eddie Prévost
Arrival Records ARC001

2000
Entropology - The Science of Sonic Poetry with John Wolf Brennan & Simon Picard
FOR4EARS Records CD 1036

2001 THE VIRTUE IN IF
Eddie Prévost Trio Tom Chant soprano saxophone / John Edwards double bass / Eddie Prévost drums
Matchless Recordings MRCD34.
ALL ANGELS CONCERTS
Eddie Prévost solo percussion track on a double CD compilation of concerts held at ALL Angels church, London as part of an ongoing series organised by Rhodri Davies and Mark Wastell
SEVENTH OF MAY 2001
a double CD that contains the performance of 7 May 2001 at freedom of the city festival, London on 7 May 2001. Contain an Eddie Prevost solo and the Eddie Prévost Trio
MRCD47
MATERIAL CONSEQUENCES
Eddie Prevost solo .percussion
MRCD48

2001/2002 CHRISTIAN WOLFF early piano music
John Tilbury, Christian Wolff, Eddie Prévost
A double CD featuring the early piano music of Christian Wolff. Solo pieces by John Tilbury, two piano and four hands by John Tilbury and Christian Wolff plus a trio piece with Eddie Prévost on percussion.
MRCD51

2002
UNDISTILLED
Sakada Mattin, Rosy Parlane, Eddie Prévost
three sets recorded at Audit, London Worm Rotterdam and Baggage reclaim, London in 2002
MRCD49
NONE (-T)
9! Nathaniel Catchpole, Jamie Coleman, Alex James, Ross Lambert, John Lely, Sebastian Lexer, Marianthi Papalexandri, Eddie Prévost, Seymour Wright
MRCD54
FREEDOM OF THE CITY
Anton Lukoszevieze and Eddie Prévost
recorded and videoed at freedom of the city festival 2002.
Published in a compilation DVD to accompany: Blocks of Consciousness and Unbroken Continuum, Edtiors Brian Marley and Mark Wastell, Sound 323, 2005

2003
SAKADA
Rhodri Davies, Eddie Prévost, Mattin, Margarida Garcia, Mark Wastell
recorded at freedom of the city festival , London 3 May 2003
SAKADA: ASKATUTA
Xabier Erkizia, Mattin, Eddie Prévost
recorded at a concert given at Arteleku (Donostia-San Sebastián) Spain 22 August 2003
Therhizomelabel rech 14
A BRIGHT NOWHERE
Conditions Nathaniel Catchpole, Jamie Coleman, John Edwards, Alex James, Eddie Prévost
MRCD55
THE BLACKBIRD’S WHISTLE
Eddie Prevost Trio Tom Chant, John Edwards, Eddie Prévost
MRCD56
IMPONDERABLE EVIDENCE
Evan Parker and Eddie Prévost
MRCD57

2004
DISCRETE MOMENTS
John Tilbury and Eddie Prévost
MRCD58
ACOUSTIC TRIO
John Coxon, Eddie Prévost, Ashley Wales
Treader tdr004

2005
INTERWORKS
John Butcher and Eddie Prévost
MRCD66

2006
ENTELECHY
Eddie Prévost tam-tam solo
MRCD67
SO ARE WE, SO ARE WE
Alan Wilkinson baritone and alto saxophones. Eddie Prévost drums
Matchless Recordings MRCD68
ALONG CAME JOE
Alan Wilkinson baritone and alto saxophones, Joe Williamson double bass. Eddie Prévost drums.
Matchless Recordings MRCD69

Further reading

• No Sound is Innocent, Copula, 1995 ISBN 0-9525492-0-4
• Minute Particulars, Copula, 2004 ISBN 0-9525492-1-2
• Cornelius Cardew Reader (ed. Edwin Prévost) Copula, 2006 ISBN 0-9525492-2-0

External links

• http://www.matchlessrecordings.com/taxonomy/term/1 Eddie Prévost at Matchless Recordings