This is the first episode in the second series of the Free Improv Pod, and I am delighted to be able to present and interview with drummer and percussionist Eddie Prevost.

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Eddie was a founder member and percussionist with the legendary and highly influential improvisation group AMM. Very much a part of first wave of free improvisation in the UK, AMM have remained active - in various and changeable formats - for the last 55 years.
Their work has seen them appearing in the pages of Vogue and in international touring venues. But for Eddie, this journey started in Bermondsey, London, and, through an early interest in jazz, and playing in trad' bands, Eddie soon found the musicians with whom he would start out on a very different musical journey.
This episode takes its start from Eddie's new 'polemical memoir' An Uncommon Music for The Common Man and I highly recommend reading a copy of that book to get a feel of the many ideological issues AMM and Eddie's other bands have addressed in their careers of more than half a century.

The image used for this episode of the The Free Improv Pod was taken by persons unknown and given to me after a performance myself and Eddie Prevost gave at Fairkytes Air Centre, Hornchurch, Essex in 1980. This was my first paid gig. I had approached Eddie when I was in my mid-teens and with a rapidly growing interest in alternative music and its place in the process of political change. I look back now and can say that Eddie's support for me was an absolute game changer, and it was only later in life that I began to see how this master drummer and percussionist had also become an inspirational educator, enabler and organiser for so many others, too.

This episode was recorded in April 2021 during the Coronavirus lockdown, using video platforms and with a reliance on the low quality broadband we both endure living in rural areas, so there are some minor sound glitches here and there. I hope that doesn't detract from your enjoyment of this time spent with a true originator of improvisation in the UK.

Eddie's new book - An Uncommon Music for the Common Man - a Polemical Memoir
is available here: matchlessrecordings.com/book/uncommon-music-common-man


Music excerpts:

All used with permission

AMM Music - AMM - 1966. Lawrence Sheaff cello, accordion, clarinet, electronics [transistor radio] / Keith Rowe electric guitar, electronics [transistor radio] / Eddie Prevost percussion / Cornelius Cardew piano, cello, electronics [transistor radio] / Lou Gare tenor saxophone, violin - matchlessrecordings.com/music/ammmusic
The Crypt - AMM - 1968. Edwin (Eddie) Prévost percussion / Keith Rowe electric Guitar / Lou Gare tenor saxophone / Christopher Hobbs percussion / Cornelius Cardew piano matchlessrecordings.com/music/crypt
AMM at The Roundhouse - AMM - 1972. Eddie Prévost percussion / Lou Gare tenor saxophone. matchlessrecordings.com/music/amm-roundhouse
Vols 1&2 1977 - Eddie Prevost Band 1993. Eddie Prevost drums / Geoff Hawkins tenor saxophone / Gerry Gold trumpet and flugelhorn / Marcio Mattos double bass. matchlessrecordings.com/music/live-vols-1-2-1977
The Whole Moon Rests in a Dewdrop on the Glass - 2018. Ken Ikeda electronics / Eddie) Prévost percussion. matchlessrecordings.com/music/whole-moon-rests-dewdrop-grass
kenikeda.bandcamp.com/album/the-whole-moon-rests-in-a-dewdrop-on-the-glass

Industria - AMM 2021. John Tilbury piano / Eddie Prévost percussion matchlessrecordings.com/music/industria

Christopher Small's books -
www.amazon.co.uk/Christopher-Small/e/B001KI0UZQ%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share