John Stevens' Away/Somewhere In Between/Mazin Ennit

These albums are old friends; Away was Stevens` attempt at commercial jazz-rock (which I understand led to a fall-out with long-time collaborator Trevor Watts who had a similar project in mind); I had all three of these albums on LP, picked up at bargain prices mainly because they were quickly deleted by the record company after a woefully inept and half-hearted attempt to market them in all the wrong places and to the wrong audiences.Stevens was a much respected free improvising musician co-leading the SME (Spontaneous Music Ensemble) and working with like-minded musicians in this vibrant and radical movement; Away was a considerable departure from that, but the music was/is of remarkable quality and inventiveness – the evidence is on these discs.The first album was a live recording with Trevor Watts on alto sax, Peter Cowling on electric guitar and Steve Hayton on electric bass; the two other albums have a different personnel, with Robert Calvert on tenor/soprano saxes, David Cole on electric guitar, Nick Stephens and Ron Herman on electric and acoustic basses respectively; Stephens plays drums on all the tracks; the bonus material includes tracks with John Martyn and Terri Quaye.Away was a fine ensemble delivering an interesting blend of avant garde jazz-rock that really deserved better exposure than it got; this set has been remastered from original LPs rather than master tapes, but the fact that it's available at all is heartening – I urge anyone interested in intelligent jazz fusion music to seek this set out.CD playing times are 59.59 minutes and 78.52; shame there are no sound samples available.

Stumbled across this compilation via recommendations and am so glad. I have these three albums on vinyl plus other John Stevens incarnations. I loved the honesty of the playing and telepathic interplay between the brilliant musicians and never dreamed they would surface on CD, let alone in such a well-packaged way with an excellent booklet.I feel that many people who primarily like rock music would like this given a chance to hear it. Brilliant drumming and bass combined with saxophone and guitar exploring their way ahead without ever lapsing into cliche. My introduction to John came about as a result of attending the Bracknell Jazz Festivals - at that time (30+ years ago) I didn't even know what free jazz was so had a totally open mind! This comes under the broad category of free jazz but is somehow accessible at the same time.

More Gold from BGO ! Well done. Should be in the collection of any serious 70's British Jazz fan. I have the vinyl (and the John Martyn single), but the whole set (3 L.P.s on 2 CDs) is not going to be beaten as either a bargain or for the content. John Stevens was a master in all the situations he placed himself in, from the S.M.E., duos with Evan Parker, trio with John Martyn & Danny Thompson, quartets, sextets and up to the Spontaneous Dance Orchestra. Crisp, clear sound, original ideas, great playing.

Have been waiting longtime for John Stevens Away to be released on nice clean sounding CD, and here they are, but oh disappointment!95% of this compilation has been recorded directly from the vinyl albums them selves and not from the original tapes, as stated on the box.Despite pops, clicks, scratch, rumble and other surface noise, it is as well that this excellent music is preserved for all who love it.

thanks

I discovered these three albums back in 1990 when I was going through a major jazz phase and having begun it with some of the main {and, come to think of it, many obscure} American outfits, I was all up for some British jazz fusion and the likes of Amalgam, Bill Bruford, Nucleus, Paraphernalia/Barbara Thompson, Brand X, Isotope and Low Flying Aircraft {among others} didn't disappoint.Neither did Away.These three albums served up here are something of a mixed bag. When they're hard work, they're really hard work. When they are fantastic, they are sensational.The first album is a case in point. "It Will Never Be The Same" and "Anni" both being delightful grooves, "Tumble" shows the most wonderful invention and the mad riff that the tune keeps lurching into is memorable and catchy. But in between, the free playing can border on the nerve shredding with Trevor Watts' honking squealing sax. I'm not a fan of drum solos either so when John launches into them, they don't hold me. They're generally good to witness live but they rarely hold up to repeated listenings. It's a good album though."Somewhere in between" is the strongest album of the three. It's the most consistent and the idea of having both an electric and an acoustic bassist was a novel one. Far from there being a build up of unfathomable low rumblings, there is good separation and very distinct parts. All the pieces are beautifully played with no irritating sounds and for sheer head nodding delight, look no further than "Can't explain." It's so happy and funky in a totally English way. Robert Calvert on saxes sounds like he was having such a fun time, even if he wasn't."Mazin Ennit ?" sort of veers back towards the inconsistency of the debut album even though the line-up is the same as "Somewhere in between." I find some of it really irritating but most of it is very accessible and a good album. The bands' songwriting and arranging were top notch.One of the things that tended to set Amalgam and Away apart from many of the jazz fusion bands of the 70s was their adoption of a more free form aesthetic. Whereas many of the fusion bands' jazziness was in their stellar playing {and thus, played songs, even if they were lengthy}, Away on these three albums produced a heavier improvisational element to their jazz. It was a courageous fusion and meant that sometimes the results were 'miss' rather than 'hit.' When the concentration was more on the regularity of the tune and/or groove, then the results were a definite "Yayy !!"Ironically, in my opinion, their best album was the one that followed "Mazin, Ennit ?" and isn't included here, a live album of a gig they did at a pub in Stockwell, south London in Feb '78 called "Integration." David Cole's guitar is gone and so is Ron Herman's acoustic bass but these are replaced by the fairly savage twin guitar attack of Nigel Moyse and Martin Holder and along with Calvert's saxes, Nick Stephens' electric bass and John's drumming, combine to blast through 6 heavyweights. It's the kind of balance they achieved so well on "Somewhere in between" but double plus, better in every way. It's the kind of rocking jazz that would have seriously threatened Mahavishnu, 11th House and Return to Forever had it been around 4 or 5 years earlier. However the seeds of that album had been well and truly planted, watered and cultivated in the three albums contained on this CD and whatever one wants to say about John Stevens Away, there's no denying that they ploughed their own furrow and were devastatingly original, even if this didn't always do them much good.