IN MAY 1972 a unique and precious moment transpired in the history of British jazz and improvised music. An amalgam of powerful musicians performed in the 100 Club in Oxford Street, using the name suggested by pianist Stan Tracey, Splinters.

The group was devised by the drummer John Stevens and included his confrere from the avant-garde Spontaneous Music Ensemble, alto saxophonist Trevor Watts. They had met, alongside trombonist Paul Rutherford, during their years in Germany with the RAF, which they had both joined to develop their musical skills.

Watts, born in York in 1939, is the only survivor of Splinters, and he told me that its genesis owed as much to economic factors as to artistic reasons. “It was John’s idea basically, and he hatched the plot with drummer Phil Seamen. As John’s closest friend, he would have been talking to me too. We made our point about inclusivity at the Musicians’ Co-op. Some players wanted better conditions just for avant-garde players, but John and I wanted the co-operative to press for work for all those not doing that well, irrespective of what style they played.”