Let's celebrate Annette Peacock, one of jazz's great innovators. Actually, scratch that: Annette Peacock is one of music's great innovators. According to a 1983 Melody Maker article, "She was given one of the first synthesizers by its inventor Robert Moog in 1968; . . . she performed [in] the first electronic improvising band; she was the first person to sing through a synthesizer and the first to electronically treat the voice in the recording process; she was the first 'rap' over a rock backing; [and] she invented the 'free-form song.'" And did we mention that her 1971 record I'm the One was voted by journalists from The Wire magazine as one of the top 100 records that "shook the world"?
In 1992, Paul Bley (piano), Gary Peacock (bass), and Franz Koglmann (flugelhorn and trumpet) stepped into a German recording studio with no particular plans. Koglmann had a few arrangements of Annette Peacock's songs, and soon enough the trio decided to devote their three-day session to her music. Annette was first released by HatHut in 1995, remastered in 2000 and rereleased by Hatology in 2001, and now Hatology is releasing the third edition of this essential CD.
Of the CD's ten songs (plus two alternate takes that are genuinely alternate) nine are composed by Annette Peacock. The selection showcases a wide range of her talent, from overtly melodic to slyly humorous to funkily abstract. There's a lovely geometry to her compositions, and this elegant underpinning is shown to full effect with this bare instrumentation. Then there's the X factor, the emotional quality of Annette Peacock's music: this is a lady who gets right to the point, and her no-nonsense openheartedness is so clear it's astonishing.
Any composer would be fortunate to have such high caliber musicians play their compositions, and since Annette Peacock was formerly married to both Gary Peacock and Bley, there is an emotional intimacy here that can only benefit the music. Bley plays with grace and crystalline clarity, and Gary Peacock's bass work is both warm and spare; he seems constitutionally incapable of wasting a note. Koglmann has a gentle, breathy tone, reminiscent of Miles Davis, plus the ability to hold a note until it trembles with poignancy.
This is just one of those recording sessions with a special kismet, one of those magical gatherings that created music of stunning beauty. Annette is a CD to be played again and again, a world of sound and feeling that gives and gives and gives.
Comments and Feedback:
|
