Like many encounters with the famous, they’re smaller than you imagined. This little drum-kit was on stage at E7’s Cider House at their second Forest Gate Improvisation event on 25 April. It looks almost like a toy, the manufacturer’s name askew at the top, as if the supports below have gone a bit flimsy. The kit has no toms, as if the band were still in the process of loading in.

But the modest set has seen a lot. It’s the drum-kit of the late John Stevens, of Spontaneous Music Ensemble, now looked after by cellist/percussionist Mark Wastell. So these drums – as seen on the front of Oliv & Famile – might have accompanied the likes of Don Cherry, Peter Brötzmann, even John Lennon & Yoko Ono. Rashied Ali supposedly jammed on them, too.

Stevens was an educator and a facilitator, and he probably reduced his drum-kit to allow space for others. In many pictures of SME, the set had bigger cymbals than above, but in essence it’s the same, with no snare drum, no toms, and the neutral sound of the horizontal tambour.

Analysing this deconstructive process is difficult with the passing of time and Stevens himself, but we can imagine some of the difference it made in the live setting. Removing toms and snares takes away the most explosive technologies in the drummer’s arsenal, equalising the power balance of the ensemble in line with Stevens’s demographic ideals. It also leaves the drummer more visually exposed and connected with the other players. The result is a drum-kit that expresses the player’s bodily movements but does not exaggerate them, a skeleton rather than protective armour (Steve Beresford and John Kieffer did a great talk on Stevens at one of The Wire’s Off The Page events at Whitstable back in 2011, which might still be found online).

The night featured three sets, three contrasting drum-kits. All the performances were sharp and energetic, in an intimate arch space with the stage just a metre or two away. Sue Lynch and Regan Bowering duoed on saxophone and drums/mini-amplifiers, conjuring some beautifully uncanny bits of feedback as the drums and amplifiers magicked the sax sounds back into the room. Andrew Lisle played a dynamic solo drum set with a constant pulse and an infectiously intuitive energy. In the final set, Benedict Taylor bowed assertive, folksy lines on his viola, potent in that small bar, and the energy level gave Wastell license to explore.

In Wastell’s version of Stevens’s kit, the cymbals are tiny, almost finger instruments or toys. His particular kit is made up of supports and stands as much as the drums themselves. Towards the end, Wastell simply grabs the cymbal stands and shakes them or rubs them together, bringing the set to a chaotic climax. I’ve always found the gleaming metal stands and Meccano-like hinge structures of drum sets almost as fascinating as the drums themselves, and this set blurred the lines between player and kit in ecstatic manner. When the kit is small, you find out even more about the person behind it.

I wasn’t aware at the time, but Mark and his Confront label have put together a John Stevens 30th anniversary event which takes place in London in May. Details just dropped and you can find more info here. Daniel Spicer wrote a great Primer for The Wire on SME , with photos by the late Jak Kilby, that’s a blast from start to finish. Meanwhile you can keep tabs on Forest Gate Improvisation via Benedict Taylor. You can find out more about these fine musicians from their websites: Benedict Taylor, Sue Lynch, Regan Bowering, Andrew Lisle