Join us at the voodoo rooms on the 7th May 2014 for a concert with free improvisation legend and provocateur Eddie Prévost. Doors are 8pm.

Tickets are free but we’ll ask for donations on the door. Please reserve your tickets here:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/eddie-prevost-tickets-11093156931

Here’s more information written about him by HajduKing Productions in 2013.

Eddie Prévost…a different drummer…

“There’s more than one Eddie Prévost…”.  The Wire 231, 2003

In November 1999 drummer Eddie Prévost first convened a weekly
improvisation workshop at the premises of Community Music in
Southwark. Since September 2004 the workshop has continued to meet at
the Welsh Chapel, Southwark Bridge Road, London, England. Since its
inception the workshop has engaged over 400 musical questers
representing over twenty different nationalities. These occasions
enable Prévost to engage with a younger generation of musicians. After
four decades of intensive improvising Prévost’s exploratory spirit is
undiminished.

“Music ever afresh is needed to renew creative life-forces and
reaffirm the inexhaustible potential of human existence.”  EP: No
Sound Is Innocent Copula 1995

In 1965, along with tenor saxophonist Lou Gare, bassist Lawrence
Sheaff and guitarist Keith Rowe, 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 — soon to be joined by
distinguished composer Cornelius Cardew — 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. In 1968 American
composer Christian Wolff spent his year in London as a member of AMM.

“AMM’s radical exploration of a whole new area of sound, the reactions
and contributions of each player to the developing situation and the
feeling of sounds constantly altering and moving in different
directions can be a uniquely revealing and exhilarating experience.”
Musical Times (UK)

“I’m interested in engaging with the materials themselves and also
with other people, as a way of discovering new responses in myself.
That’s the way you find other places. Any creative act works towards
an otherness.”  EP, The Wire 231, 2003

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.

“It’s a joy to hear him bow cymbals, hit his kit and bring forth
thunder from his beloved barrel drum, a home made instrument that
gives Prévost almost Harry Partch status.” The Wire (U.K.)

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 featuring Larry Stabbins and Veryan Weston and Marcio
Mattos to his trio which began in the 1990s with Tom Chant and John
Edwards and to recent ensembles with saxophonists Evan Parker, Jason
Yarde and John Butcher. [See CD series ‘Meetings with Remarkable
Saxophonists’ Vols 1 to 4 on Matchless Recoridngs.]

“The Eddie Prévost Quartet possesses the great virtue of keeping a
firm hold on traditional jazz essentials – rhythmic drive, strong
melodic development, clearly developed improvisatory statements – at
the same time as it seems to keep its permanently exploratory
direction.” Jazz Forum (Poland)

“His free drumming flows superbly making use of his formidable
technique. It’s as though there has never been an Elvin Jones or Max
Roach.”  Melody Maker (UK)

“To make a meta-music is to hypothesize, to test every sound.” EP, No
Sound Is Innocent Copula 1995

Prévost still performs regularly with AMM (which currently consists of
pianist John Tilbury and himself — although the 2020 AMM CD  Sounding
Music extended membership to saxophonist John Butcher, cellist Ute
Kanngeisser as well as resuming a musical relationship with Christian
Wolff. 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, including  Japan’s
Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko M, Sakada (with the live electronics and
computers of Mattin and Rosy Parlane) or the trio with Jim O’Rourke
and Takehisa Kosugi that accompanied Merce Cunningham’s dance company
in 1998 and many other ensemble drawn mostly from workshop
participants.

“Prévost’s playing confirmed that he remains one of the subtlest and
most intelligent of free drummers.”
The Guardian (UK)

“A drummer combining sensitivity and strength in equal quantities.”
The Scotsman (UK)

“Freely improvised extremity from Prévost, a drummer who knows the
value of silent spaces, but who also has a killer size Japanese Kodo-
type skin beast for when he feels like brain-haemorrhaging volume
attacks.”What’s On Birmingham (UK)

Prévost’s life as a musician has encompassed encounters with an
extraordinary range of instrumentalists including Evan Parker, Barry
Guy, Paul Rutherford, Tony Moore, Christian Wolff, Marilyn Crispell,
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. 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.

“One of Britain¹s most eloquent advocates of free music.” The Times (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 . His keynote
address to the 1999 Colloquium (part of the Guleph Jazz Festival) was
reprinted in ‘The Other Side of Nowhere — jazz, improvisation, and
communities in dialogue’ Ed. Daniel Fischlin and Aja Heble, Weslyan
UP, 2004.  And more recently, he contributed a chapter to The Ashgate
Research Companion to Experimental Music. From his home in Essex he
runs the estimable imprint Matchless Recordings and its print offshoot
Copula, which has published Prévost’s own books, No Sound Is Innocent
(1995), Minute Particulars (2004) and The First Concert– an adaptive
appraisal of a meta music (2011). He also edited an invaluable
collection of essays, articles and statements in Cornelius Cardew A
Reader (2006). The imprint Copula also published John Tilbury’s
biography Cornelius Cardew a life unfinished (2008). He has also been
an active member of several organizations established to promote
improvisation and creative music-making including the annual London
festival of improvised and experimental music Freedom of the City.

“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.

“This film presents an opportunity to observe Eddie Prévost playing in
solo and group situations, and hear him speak about his approach to
music-making, the particular tools of his craft, and the bloodline
that stretches from his Huguenot ancestors through to his own working
class origins in South East London. Incorporating footage of
performances by Prévost with Jennifer Allum, John Butcher, Ute
Kanngiesser and Riacrdo Tejero in unque locations, including a return
to his old school in Deptford, we are invited to form our own
responses to the music — and the man — we encounter.”

— discography, list of books and published articles

AMM discography

1966 AMMMUSIC  Cardew: Gare: Prévost: Rowe: Sheaff. Recorded in London
Re-released (1989) plus additional material of ‘classic’ early AMM
sessions. ReR AMMCD ReR MegaCorp/Matchless

1968 The Crypt 12th June  Cardew: Gare: Hobbs: Prévost: Rowe  Recorded
in London — new 1992 double CD edition The Complete  Session with
material not released before. Matchless Recordings mrcd05 (double)

1972 AMM at the Roundhouse Lou Gare: Eddie Prévost  Recorded at the
ICES Festival, London in 1972. Part of this material was released as
an EP by Incus Records in 1973. The CD released in 2004 is a
re-mastered version of the complete performance. Anomalous Records
ICES 001

1973-75 To Hear and Back Again  Lou Gare: Eddie Prévost  recorded in
London Matchless Recordings mrcd03. Re-released in 1994 with
additional material

1979  It Had Been an Ordinary Enough Day in Pueblo, Colorado  Eddie
Prévost: Keith Rowe Recorded in Ludwigsburg, Germany. ECM/ JAPO 60031.
CD re-released 1991

1982-83  Generative Themes  Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury. Matchless
Recordings mrcd06. Recorded in Bath, England. Re-released in 1994

1984  Combine + Laminates + Treatise ’84   Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury
“Pogus Productions LP P201-4 Combine + Laminates  only (as LP)
recorded in Chicago, USA. Matchless Recordings mrcd26. Re-released
together with Treatise ’84  in 1995

1984  The Inexhaustible Document   de Saram: Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury
Matchless Recordings mrcd13. Recorded in London. Re-released as a CD
with additional material in 1996

1988  Irma — an opera by Tom Phillips. AMM plus soloists. Coxhill:
Lorraine: Mitchell: Pederson: Phillips: Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury.
Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings mrcd16

1990  The Nameless Uncarved Block  Gare: Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury
Recorded in Switzerland. Matchless Recordings mrcd20

1992   Newfoundland  Prévost: Rowe:Tilbury Recorded in St John’s,
Newfoundland. Matchless Recordings mrcd23

1994  Live in Allentown USA  Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury Matchless Recordings mrcd30

1969-1982-1994 LAMINAL   —  30th Anniversary retrospective triple CD
set.  1. The Aarhus Sequences  recorded in Denmark, 1969  Cardew:
Gare: Hobbs: Prévost: Rowe.  2. The Great Hall   recorded at
Goldsmiths’ College, London 1982  Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury  3.
Contextual  recorded in New York, 1994  Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury.
Matchless Recordings mrcd31 (released winter 1996/97)

1995  From a Strange Place    Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury  Recorded in
Japan. Modern Music (PSF Records)

1996  Before driving to the chapel we took coffee with Rick and
Jennifer Reed  Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury Recorded in Houston, Texas, USA.
Matchless Recordings mrcd35

2000 Tunes Without Measure or End  Prévost: Rowe: Tilbury Recorded in
Glasgow, Scotland. Matchless Recordings mrcd44

2004 Apogee  Musica Elettronica Viva & AMM  Alvin Curran: Eddie
Prévost: Frederic Rzewski: Keith Rowe: Richard Teitelbaum: John
Tilbury. Double CD featuring studio recording of all six musician and
live recording of the respective performances at ‘Freedom of the City’
Festival, London 1st May 2004. Matchless Recordings mrcd61

2005  Norwich  Prévost: Tilbury. Recorded at UEA, Norwich, England.
Matchless Recordings mrcd64

2008 Trinity — AMM with John Butcher  Butcher: Prévost: Tilbury.
Recorded at Greenwich, England. Matchless Recordings mrcd71

2009 Sounding Music — AMM (John Butcher, Ute Kanngeisser, Eddie
Prévost, John Tilbury and Christian Wolff  Matchless Recordings mrcd77

2010 Uncovered Correspondence: a postcard from Jaslo — AMM with John
Tilbury and Eddie Prévost. Matchless Recordings mrcd78

2011 Two London Concerts — AMM with John Tilbury and Eddie Prévost.
Matchless Recordings mrcd85

2012 Place sub. v — AMM with John Tilbury and Eddie Prévost. Matchless
Recordings mrcd91

other discography

1969 Silver Pyramid  Music Now Ensemble incl. Lou Gare, Cornelius
Cardew, Eddie Prévost, Keith Rowe and others. Prevost’s composition.
Recorded at Music Now Festival, Roundhouse, London. Matchless
Recordings mrcd40 (released in 2001)

1976 Now-Here-This-Then   Eddie Prévost Band: Gerry Gold: Geoff
Hawkins: Marcio Mattos: Prévost. Recorded at the ICA, London. Spotlite
SPJ 505

1983 Continuum  Eddie Prévost Quartet:   Marcio Mattos: Prévost: Larry
Stabbins: Veryan Weston. Recorded at the Bracknell Jazz Festival,
England.  Matchless Recordings mrlp07. New CD version mrcd07 released
in 1999 with additional material from 1985

1983 Handscapes  Akemi Kunishoshi-Kuhn Trio:  Akemi Kuniyoshi-Kuhn
piano: Marcio Mattos double bass: Eddie Prévost drums. Recorded in
London. Leo Records

1984 Supersession Barry Guy double bass: Evan Parker tenor saxophone:
Eddie Prévost drums: Keith Rowe guitar. Recorded in London. Matchless
Recordings mrcd17

1985 Miller’s Tales  Steve Miller Trio — meets Lol Coxhill . Steve
Miller piano: Tony Moore double bass: Eddie Prévost drums with Lol
Coxhill soprano saxophone. Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings
mrdlp09

1985/86  Resoundings Peter McPhail saxophones/flute/Tony Moore double
bass/Eddie Prévost drums. Recorded in London and Oxford, England.
Matchless Recordings mrlp08–new CD version mrcd08 released in 2000
with additional material from 1986

1987 Flayed/Crux  Prévost/Organum. Recorded in London. Silent Records
SR8704  re-released as a CD in 1995 by Matchless Recordings mrcd27

1989 Premonitions  free jazz quartet — Harrison Smith
saxophones,b.cl./fl: Paul Rutherford trombone: Tony Moore cello: Eddie
Prévost drums. Recorded in Holywell Music Rooms, Oxford, England.
Matchless Recordings mrcd18

1990 GOD  God. Recorded in London. Pathological PPP106

1990/92  Third Day Straight Made Public  Jim O’Rourke guitar: Eddie
Prévost percussion. Recorded in London. Complacency CPCD9302

1992 Beyond the Pale  E(xperimental) A(udio) R(esearch) — Sonic Boom:
Kevin Martin: Kevin Shields: Eddie Prévost. Recorded in England.  Big
Cat Records ABB96CD

1993/95  Phenomena 256  E(xperimental) A(udio) R(esearch — Sonic Boom:
Eddie Prévost: Kevin Martin: Tom Prentice: Scott Riley: /Peter Bain:
Alf Hardy. Recorded in England. Space Age Recordings. Orbit 005LP

1994 Band on the Wall  Marilyn  Crispell piano: Eddie Prévost drums.
Recorded in Manchester, England. Matchless Recordings mrcd25

1996 Loci of Change — sounds and sensibility. Solo percussion.
Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings mrcd32

1997  Millenium Music — A Meta Musical Portrait. E(xperimetal) A(udio)
R(esearch) — Kember: Prévost: Prentice: Bain. Recorded in England.
Atavistic ALP72CD

1997 Most Materiall  Evan Parker saxophones: Eddie Prévost percussion.
Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings mrcd33 (double)

1997 Touch — the weight, measure and feel of things. Eddie Prévost
Trio — Tom Chant soprano saxophone: John Edwards double bass: Eddie
Prévost drums. Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings mrcd34

1997 En.Tropo.Logy. Simon Picard tenor saxophone: John Wolf Brennan
piano, prepared piano and electronics: Eddie Prévost drums and
percussion. Recorded in London. For 4 Ears CD1036 (released 2000)

1998 concert, v. Eddie Prévost drums: Veryan Weston piano. Recorded in
London. Matchless Recordings mrcd37

1998 The Issue at Hand.  Such: Yoshikazu Iwamoto shakuhachi: John
Tilbury piano: Eddie Prévost percussion. Recorded in London. Matchless
Recordings mrcd38 (double)

2000 Ore. Derek Bailey guitar: Eddie Prévost percussion. Recorded in
London. Arrival Records  ARCD001

2000  The Virtue in If  Eddie Prévost trio– Tom Chant soprano
saxophone: John Edwards double bass: Eddie Prévost drums. Recorded in
London. Matchless Recordings mrcd43

2001 Material Consequences. Eddie Prévost solo percussion. Recorded in
London.  Matchless Recordings mrcd48

2001/02  Christian Wolff — early piano music.  John Tilbury and
Christian Wolff pianos: Eddie Prévost percussion. Recorded in London.
Matchless Recordings mrcd51 (double)

2002 none (-t).  9! — Nathaniel Catchpole tenor saxophone/elk calls:
Jamie Coleman trumpet: Alex James piano: Ross Lambert guitar/pocket
trumpet/preparations: John Lely piano: Sebastian Lexer piano/computer:
Marianthi Papelexandri moving objects: Eddie Prévost percussion:
Seymour Wright alto saxophone. Recorded in London. Matchless
Recordings mrcd54

2002 Undistilled.  Sakada: Mattin computer feedback: Rosy Parlane
computer and radio: Eddie Prévost percussion. Recorded in London.
Matchless Recordings mrcd49

2003 imponderable evidence.  Evan Parker tenor saxophone: Eddie
Prévost drums. Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings mrcd57

2003 the blackbird’s whistle.  Eddie Prévost Trio — Tom Chant tenor
saxophone and bass clarinet: John Edwards double bass: Eddie Prévost
drums. Recorded in London.  Matchless Recordings mrcd56

2003 A Bright Nowhere. Conditions — Nathaniel Catchpole tenor
saxophone: Jamie Coleman trumpet: Alex James piano: John Edwards
double bass: Eddie Prévost drums. Recorded in London. Matchless
Recordings mrcd55

2004 Discrete Moments. John Tilbury — piano, prepared piano, organ:
Eddie Prévost drums, stringed barrel, tam-tam and other percussion.
Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings mrcd58

2006 Interworks.  John Butcher tenor and soprano saxophones: Eddie
Prévost tam-tam and other percussion. Recorded in London. Matchless
Recordings mrcd66

2006 Entelechy. Eddie Prévost solo tam-tam. Recorded in London.
Matchless Recordings mrcd67

2006 so are we, so are we. Eddie Prévost drums: Alan Wilkinson alto
and baritone saxophones. Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings
mrcd68

2008 Gamut.  Eddie Prévost Roto toms: Seymour Wright alto saxophone.
Recorded in London. Matchless Recordings mrcd72

2008 Blackheath. Alexander von Schlippenbach piano: Eddie Prévost
drums. Recorded at Blackheath Halls, London. Matchless Recordings
mrcd73

2009 Inveni Ergo Sum Seymour Wright alto saxophone, Ross Lambert
el.gutar,Eddie Prévost drums.mrcd75 (double)

2009 Memories for the Future, free jazz quartet with Paul Rutherford
trombone, Harrison Smith t/s,s/s b/c., Tony Moore cello, Eddie Prévost
drums Matchless Recordings mrcd76

2010 Ftarri Collection 2 (featuring: Sachiko M sinewaves and Eddie
Prévost percussion.

2011 Penumbrae. Jennifer Alum violin, Eddie Prévost bowed percussion

2011 All Told — (Meetings with Remarkable Saxophonists Vol. 1) Evan
Parker tenor saxophone, John Edwards double bass, Eddie Prévost drums.
Matchless Recordings mrcd81

2011 Impossibility in its Purest Form — Sebastian Lexer piano+,
Seymour Wright alto saxophone, Eddie Prévost percussion. Matchless
Recordings mrcd82

2011 All But  — (Meetings with Remarkable Saxophonists Vol. 2) John
Butcher tenor and soprano saxophone, Guillaume Viltard double bass,
Eddie Prévost drums. Matchless Recordings mrcd83

2011 All Together —  (Meetings with Remarkable Saxophonists Vol. 3)
Jason Yarde alto and soprano saxophones, Oli Hayhurst double bass,
Eddie Prévost drums

2011 All-in-All {en tout et pour tout] — (Meetings with Remarkable
Saxophonists Vol. 4)  Bertrand Denzler tenor saxophone, John Edwards
double bass, Eddie Prévost drums. Matchless Recordings mrcd88

2012 Workshop Concert — Jennifer Allum, violin, Ute Kangiesser cello,
Grundik Kasyansky theramin/electronic,/ Dimitria Lazeridou-Chatzigoga
zither, Eddie Prévost percussion, Daichi Yoshikawa electronics.
Matchless Recordings mrcd87

2012 Tri-Borough Triptych — Evan parker saxophones, Sebastian Lexer
piano+, Eddie Prévost percussion. Matchless Recordings mrcd89

Books and articles

Books

No Sound is Innocent –‘ AMM and the Practice of self-invention and
Meta-Musical Narratives’, Copula, Harlow, 1995

Minute Particulars: meaning in music-making in the wake of hierarchial
realignments, Copula, Harlow, 2004

Cornelius Cardew: A Reader –‘ A collection of Cornelius Cardew’s
published writings’  Ed. Edwin Prévost, Copula, Harlow,  2006

Selected Articles

‘AMM: a few memories and reflections’. ReR Records Quarterly Vol 2 No
2, London Autumn 1978. Republished in Tango, Vilnius, Lithuania March
1992 (translated into Lithuanian)

‘AMM: The State of Play’, Influenza, No. 2, Horsholm, Denmark, 1980

‘The Aesthetic Priority of Improvisation: A lecture’ , Contact, No.
25, London, Autumn, 1982

‘The Ganelin Trio Reviewed Reviewed — free-jazz with a Soviet
dimension’, The Wire, No. 7, Summer, 1984

‘Improvisation: Music for an Occasion.’ British Journal of Music
Education, No. 2 Vol. 2, CUP, UK 1985

‘Whose Drum is it Anyway/” – A review of Percussion ’88’, The Wire,
London August 1988

‘Meta-Music and the Mutating Monster of Possessive Individualism — A
Epic Struggle’, Marin d’Art, Valencia, Spain, 1990

‘Out in the Midday Sun: colonial communities in New Music’ ,
Resonance, Vol.8 No.1, LMC, London 1990

‘Trumpet Against Time’, The Wire, No. 118/119, London, January 1994

‘Leaving One’s Brain in the Cloakroom’ : Leaving the Twentieth Century
— Ideas and Visions of New Musics, Contemporary Music Review, Vol 5
Parts 3-4, Harwood, 1996

‘The Arrival of a New Musical Aesthetic: Extracts from a Half-Buried
Diary’.  Not Necessarily “English Music” Britain’s Second “Golden
Age”, Leonardo Music Journal, Vol 11, 2001, pp. 25-28

‘The Discourse of a Dysfunctional Drummer’ The Other Side of Nowhere:
Jazz, Improvisation and Communities in Dialogue, Eds. Daniel Fischlin
and Ajay Heble, Weslyan University Press, 2004

‘Individuality has run riot’, The Open School, Zehar, No. 60/61,
Arteleku, Donostia, Spain, 2007

‘Free Improvisation in music and capitalism — resisting authority and
the cults of scientism and celebrity’, The Ashgate Research Companion
to Experimental Music, James Saunders (ed.),  Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009

‘Virtuosity in an an electronic Age’ Herbst — Theorie zur Praxix, Austria, 2010