GARY PEACOCK, MARILYN CRISPELL – AZURE / ECM 2292 recenze player
Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell made outstanding music together in her trio with the late Paul Motian, the three kindred spirits recording the ECM albums Nothing ever was, anyway (1997) and Amaryllis (2001) – each a modern classic. The New York Times called the pair “two of the most beautiful piano-trio records in recent memory.” The Peacock-Crispell duo project also has a history, albeit one undocumented on disc – until now, with Azure. This extraordinary new album proves that these two musicians’ shared sense of lyricism, their distinctive compositional styles and their profound backgrounds in free improvisation make them exceptional musical partners in the most intimate of settings.
The album’s highlights range from the sublimely melodic (the Peacock-penned “Lullaby”) and lyrically pensive (Crispell’s “Goodbye”) to the athletically bracing (Crispell’s “Patterns”) and folksong-like (Peacock’s moving “The Lea”). Then there are the duo’s freely improvised pieces of astonishing cohesiveness (including “Blue” and the entrancing title track), as well as utterly absorbing solo features for each instrument. The album’s title, Azure, came from Crispell, from “the sense of spaciousness I felt with the music,” she says. “The image of an open blue sea or sky came to me.”
The duo conjured the aura of Azure at Nevessa Production, just outside Woodstock – the town in Upstate New York that Crispell has called home for nearly 36 years. (Nevessa is also the studio where Crispell recorded her 2010 ECM duo album with clarinetist David Rothenberg, One Dark Night I Left My Silent House.) Peacock lives not far away, in more rural environs. Along with their shared geography and longstanding musical ties, Crispell and Peacock have in common a certain life rhythm. “We have a connection via meditation and Buddhism,” the pianist points out. “We have even meditated together while on tour.”
The two musicians have substantial histories playing in ensemble settings, of course – including Crispell with formative years in the Anthony Braxton Quartet and Peacock with his ongoing association in the ever-popular trio with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette. But Crispell and Peacock are consummate duo players, with the bassist having made acclaimed duo albums for ECM with guitarist Ralph Towner and pianist Paul Bley, not to mention other studio pairings with the likes of guitarist Bill Frisell and pianist Marc Copland. Crispell not only has the ECM album with Rothenberg to her credit but many other tête-á-tête recordings with the likes of drummer Gerry Hemingway, drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo, saxophonist Tim Berne, saxophonist Joseph Jarman and multi-instrumentalist Stefano Maltese and pianist Georg Gräwe, among others.
“I’ve looked forward to making this album with Gary for years,” Crispell says. “He and I have played a lot of duo tours, and we’ve always wanted to document our partnership – but it just never came to pass. It was so great to finally have the chance to do it.” Reflecting on Peacock’s qualities as a musician, she adds: “Gary plays with huge spirit and soul – he’s a very strong player, but he’s able to be both strong and sensitive. He has been a widely influential musician, of course, and to me, he’s such an integral part of the ECM sound. I have definitely been able to explore the more lyrical side of music with Gary, and I’m more conscious of space and form with him.”
After years as a highly kinetic energy player in a post-Cecil Taylor mode, Crispell has been “moving in a more lyrical direction over the past decade or so, which is nice – it has opened up another dimension in her playing,” Peacock says. “Marilyn has this deep experience as a player in free, unstructured music, different from my long history of playing standards. When I first met her, she really played with a reckless abandon. But I soon found that she has a serious command of the instrument. There is a high level of craft in what she does that is very alluring.”
On Azure, Peacock’s lyrically grooving, deeply substantive “Bass Solo” improvisation leads into Crispell’s melody-rich composition “Waltz After David M,” the album’s most expansive piece. Crispell’s own solo improvisation, “Piano Solo,” is a brief play of shadow and light, with clouds of dark chords pierced by percussive stabs of silver – the ideal introduction to Peacock’s off-kilter piece “Puppets,” which features his arco playing.
Crispell’s favorite moments on the album are the “call-and-response” pieces, the freely improvised “Leapfrog,” “Blue” and “Azure.” She says: “When Gary and I improvise together, there is a lot of trust and close listening, which is very special. And when he goes into a groove or a blues feeling, like on `Blue,’ it’s just incredible to play over. I love it.” For his part, Peacock says: “There is nothing premeditated about those call-and-response pieces – they are very much in the moment. It requires a lot of listening, as I make a statement and she responds and vice versa. You have to have an open mind – even no mind, a clear mind – in order to play music of worth in that way.”
In March, a tribute concert in memory of Paul Motian at Symphony Space in New York City included a duo performance by Peacock and Crispell that was one of the evening’s highlights – a turn on Motian’s “Etude”/“Cosmology” that was an instance of communion at a deep level. On June 14, Peacock and Crispell will perform a duo concert at the Rubin Museum in New York to celebrate the release of Azure.
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Gary Peacock
Born in Idaho, Gary Peacock has earned renown as one of the most versatile and searching bass players in jazz over the past five decades. One of his earliest influences was innovative saxophonist Albert Ayler, with whom Peacock performed and recorded in the 1960s. Since the early 1980s, the bassist has been adding contemporary twists to jazz standards in a globally popular trio with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette. Peacock began playing music as a child, studying piano and drums. He resumed his musical education in 1954 when he was drafted into the army, performing both with the military band at his base in Germany and with a local ensemble of his own. When the bass player left his German group, Peacock took up the instrument himself and has been a bass player ever since. In 1962, the bassist moved to New York City, where he continued a collaboration with his friend the pianist Paul Bley, an association that has endured ever since. In addition to playing with Ayler, Peacock performed with pianist George Russell and saxophonist Archie Shepp, then joined a quartet featuring Bley, trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Pete La Roca. During this period, Peacock also became part of pianist Bill Evans’ trio and recorded in a second trio with Bley and Paul Motian. In 1969, Peacock moved to Japan to study Eastern philosophy and medicine; there, he recorded with pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, among others. Peacock returned to the States in 1972, studying biology at the University of Washington and graduating four years later. He then resumed his music career in earnest, including making a name for himself as a bandleader and beginning his long association with ECM, releasing Tales of Another (with Jarrett and DeJohnette) in 1977 and December Poems in 1978. Along with his subsequent ECM albums as leader, Peacock has made two duo albums with guitarist Ralph Towner for the label, as well as recordings with Bley, Marilyn Crispell, John Surman and Bill Connors, among others. In 1999, Peacock and Bley reunited with Motian, with whom they had last performed in the 1960s, to record Not Two, Not One for ECM. Peacock has recorded nearly 25 trio albums with Jarrett and DeJohnette, including Somewhere, to be released on May 28, 2013.
Marilyn Crispell
Born in Philadelphia, Marilyn Crispell graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied classical piano and composition. She has been a resident of Woodstock, NY, since 1977, when she came to study and teach at the Creative Music Studio. She discovered jazz through the music of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and other contemporary players and composers. For 10 years, she was a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet and the Reggie Workman Ensemble, and she has been a member of the Barry Guy New Orchestra and guest with his London Jazz Composers Orchestra, as well as a member of the Henry Grimes Trio. In addition to working as a soloist and leader of her own groups, Crispell has collaborated extensively with well-known players on the international jazz scene. She has also performed and recorded music by contemporary composers from John Cage to Anthony Davis. Crispell‘s ECM debut, Nothing ever was, anyway – a double album of Annette Peacock’s music performed with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian – was released in 1997. It collected an album of the year prize in France, Jazzman’s ‘Choc de l’année 1997.’ Two more trio discs followed: Amaryllis (with Peacock and Motian, 2001) and Storyteller (with Motian and Mark Helias, 2003). Crispell appeared on Anders Jormin’s song cycle In winds, in light (2003), alongside singer Lena Willemark. Crispell’s ECM discography also includes the solo Vignettes (2008) and a duo album with clarinetist David Rothenburg, One Dark Night I Left My Silent House (2010).
RECENZE
Vždy je dobré připomínat, jakou hudbou nám mistři jazzových avantgard dokáží zčerstva předávat umění jazzu, v jehož výrazivu je obsažena úplná citová škála nutná ke zdravému duševnímu rozpoložení. Marilyn Crispellová (1947), vystudovala klasický klavír, ale k jazzu ji neodvedly dobové proudy formujícího se jazzrocku zkraje dospělosti, naopak to v moderním jazzu tvůrče nejvypjatější – hudba saxofonisty Johna Coltranea, klavíristů Cecila Taylora a Paula Bleye, trumpetisty Lea Smithe. Stylově se odvodila právě od Taylora – stačí si poslechnout jeho desky z konce padesátých let At Newport (1958) nebo Love For Sale (1959). Bylo jí proto osudem, že přes deset let hrála po boku jednoho z nejzatvrzelejších jazzových avantgardistů, saxofonisty a skladatele Anthonyho Braxtona; s ním také poděsila velkou část publika a kritiky v Lucerně na pražském mezinárodním festivalu 1984. Také kontrabasista Gery Peacock (1935) stál v čelném houfu freejazzové avantgardy už na přelomu padesátých a šedesátých let, byť dnes je znám hlavně jako letitý partner v triu pianisty Keithe Jarretta, v projektech nestandardně pojímaných standardů. Crispellová, skvěle zavedená u avantgardně zaměřených vydavatelských značek jako FMP, Leo Records, Music&Arts a podobně, nahrála v roce 1996 dvojalbum Nothing ever was, anyway, své první pro ECM, s bubeníkem Paulem Motianem a právě s basistou Peacockem. S triem nahrála ještě CD Amaryllis (2000), nyní v pozůstalém obsazení jen s Peacockem (Motian zemřel 2011) Azure, v souhrnu už sedmé pro ECM (po jednom ještě sólově, s klarinetistou Davidem Rothenbergem, v triu s Markem Heliasem a Motianem a s kapelou basisty Anderse Jormina).
Podobně, jako u jiných představitelů freejazzové avantgardy, o jejich současné hře se dá také říci, že je srozumitelnější, byť stále v pozadí vnímáme volnější přístup k improvizaci. Ke vzoru svých počátků, k hudbě dodnes třeskajících improvizací Taylora, má na Azure nejblíže úvodní Crispellové Patterns, dále společné tituly s Peacockem Leapfrog a Blue, improvizační vznětlivost si dnes vědomě krotí, možná má blíž k Bleyovi. Ač mluvím nejvíce o Crispellové, podle pořadí interpretů v názvu alba je správnější považovat za „kapelníka“ dua Garyho Peacocka. Ten má skutečně pro sebe stejný prostor téměř v každé skladbě; shodně s Crisspellové titulem Piano Solo má také svoje Bass Solo. Stojí za to jeho basu pečlivě poslouchat! Nejdelší titul Waltz After David M (9:23) překvapí lyričností, zasněností, a melodií, která by mohla být dobrým pěveckým číslem. Kupodivu kontrastně, prozaičtěji, bez zbytečného sentimentu, zní Peacockova Lullaby. „Písničkářským“ tématem je také jeho The Lea, v níž se klavír přidává až v půli skladby. Abstraktně znějící společné Blue je nejvolněji podanou skladbou, v níž nám Marilyn Crispellová připomene, že nadále je improvizačně odvážnou pianistkou. V titulní a závěrečná Azure se od počátku pozvolna vytváří melodické klenby pohodové nálady. Společné hraní dua, výrazně zpěvné, je propleteno stále přítomným rytmem podporovaným citlivě váženou dynamikou hudby. Gary Peacock a Marilyn Crispellová tvoří hudbu celistvosti, bez zbytečných not a frází.
Vladimír Kouřil pro Magazín UNI 11/2013