Eddie Prévost

Solo percussion from Matchless founder, Mr. Eddie Prévost

"Alone in the studio, it is just me trying to breathe life into the materials I have chosen at hand. I am looking, hoping, that something unexpected will crop up. The gongs, chimes, bells, skins, strings and resonating boxes are a rich environment. You never know for sure what you will dig up. I bow, scrape, pluck and hit direct and glancing blows in my engagement with the materials with which I have to work. I might even draw blood. The point is to mix myself with this stuff. Make it something other than it seems. Make something other of myself too." - Eddie Prévost

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Tracklisting:

1. Stridorings - 18:52
2. Dance music of an imaginary people - 20:41
3. Mostly bowing - 15:12
4. Statutory [sic] drum solo 10:03

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Recorded on the 16th of July, 2001 at Gateway Studios, Kingston, England by Steve Lowe. Front cover artwork: detail from Keith Rowe's Pollock '82 - percussion version.

Eddie Prévost

Eddie Prévost began his life in music as a jazz drummer. A recurring interest in this form has been maintained, although always with an experimental ethos. Along the way he has maintained his fifty-year plus experimental credentials with AMM and numerous other improvisation projects, including his now twenty-year long weekly workshop. But drumming has generally been backgrounded to his experimental percussion work. More though, is to be expected of his drumming in 2020 on forthcoming multi-CD album: The Unexpected Alchemy. A part of this Krakow festival recording features the drums and saxophone trio of Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, and Eddie Prévost. His most recent released recordings include AMM’s: An Unintended Legacy, and a duo with John Butcher - Visionary Fantasies, both on Matchless Recordings. Also, a solo percussion LP on the Earshots label called Matching Mix. Later, in 2020 he meets with Jason Yarde and Nathan Moore, while in March concerts and recording will hear him drumming with US guitarist Henry Kaiser and saxophonist Binker Golding.

And, early 2020 should see the publication of his fourth book: An Uncommon Music for the Common Man: a polemical memoir.

“Prévost's 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

“Relentlessly innovative yet full of swing and fire.” – Morning Star