Artists: GARY PEACOCK, MARILYN CRISPELL
Title: AZURE
Released: June 11, 2013
Recorded January and February 2011 at Nevessa Production, Saugerties, NY
Engineer: Chris Andersen
Cover photo: Caterina di Perri
Liner photo: Eliott Peacock
Cover design: Sascha Kleis
Produced by Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell
Genre: Jazz
Length: 59:12
Label: ECM (2292)
***Commentary from http://www.ecmrecords.com/:
“Azure” features beautiful duets by two great improvisers whose compatibility was proven long ago. Gary Peacock and Marilyn Crispell made outstanding music together in Marilyn’s trio with the late Paul Motian, on ECM albums including “Nothing ever was, anyway” and “Amaryllis”, but their duo project also has an extensive history, until now undocumented on disc. With their shared sense of lyricism, their individual compositional styles and their profound background in free playing, Peacock and Crispell are exceptional musical partners. The album, recorded in upstate New York, home territory for both musicians, contains pieces written by Peacock (“Lullaby”, “The Lea”, “Puppets”) and by Crispell (“Patterns”, “Goodbye”, “Waltz after David M”), duo improvisations (“Azure”, “Blue”, “Leapfrog”) and highly inventive piano and bass solos.
Project:
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.”
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.”
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.
Artists:
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.
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).
***Tracks:
01. Patterns (Crispell) 7:18
02. Goodbye (Crispell) 6:18
03. Leapfrog (Peacock/Crispell) 5:47
04. Bass Solo (Peacock) 3:08
05. Waltz After David M (Crispell) 9:23
06. Lullaby (Peacock) 6:38
07. The Lea (Peacock) 2:43
08. Blue (Peacock/Crispell) 5:42
09. Piano Solo (Crispell) 2:27
10. Puppets (Peacock) 3:40
11. Azure (Peacock/Crispell) 6:03
Musicians:
Gary Peacock: double bass
Marilyn Crispell: piano
***Review from http://www.allmusic.com/:
by Thom Jurek
4 stars out 5
The release of Azure, a duo recording by bassist Gary Peacock and pianist Marilyn Crispell, may have been inevitable, but it sure was a long time coming. Peacock and Crispell have played together on tour for years, but this is their first opportunity to record as a pair. Under Crispell’s leadership, they teamed with the late Paul Motian on two of the finest piano trio offerings of the last two decades: Nothing Ever Was, Anyway and Amaryllis. There are three tunes composed by each artist, three duo improvisations, and each has a solo track. Crispell’s “Patterns” opens the proceeding on a lively note. A complex, knotty, muscle-flexing duet that is full of quick call-and-response motivic thought and counterpoint, it reveals the duo’s considerable dialogic power. On the other end of the spectrum is Peacock’s lovely, melodic “The Lea,” which extends naturally from both the folk and blues traditions. He opens with his solo; it states its loose theme followed by his improvisation upon it for half the tune’s length. When Crispell enters, she underscores the song-like nature of the piece, painting its frame with melancholy, minor-key chord voicings, and brief, luxuriant fills. The set’s longest cut, “Waltz After David M,” by Crispell, is elliptical and graceful with a gorgeous melody. Peacock’s support offers avenues for more expansive — yet subtle — thought in the middle’s long improvisational section. Though these pieces are quite satisfying, the duo’s real poetic is displayed in their improvisations, especially the hypnotic “Blue,” with Crispell’s Monk-tinged chords and tight, angular lines. Peacock’s playing reveals so much wood in his tone that it feels percussive — despite his continual bluesy, swinging riffs and vamps. The title cut that closes the proceeding is crystalline, full of space, elegance, and grace. It sounds like the seamless interplay between the two is not improvised but composed and arranged. On Azure, the effortless communication between these players is like a conversation that is so intimate it can, at times, feel as if the listener is eavesdropping. Hopefully these two will be motivated to do this again.
***Review from http://www.cloudsandclocks.net/:
Gary Peacock/Marilyn Crispell
Azure (ECM)
What a great surprise is to find Marilyn Crispell’s piano deep in conversation with Gary Peacock’s double bass, just when I had become totally convinced that their roads would never meet again, with Gary Peacock busy playing in the acclaimed Trio with Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette, and Marilyn Crispell being always faithful to her inner calling, which has proved to be artistically fecund while at the same time keeping her far from the commercial spotlight.
The drum set of the late, great Paul Motian had completed the trio on Crispell’s ECM debut. While revisiting the music composed by Annette Peacock, the album titled Nothing Ever Was, Anyway (1997) also appeared as a meditation on Paul Bley’s concept of the piano – though it has to be said that Crispell herself, in her liner notes to Amaryllis (2001), the acclaimed follow-up to Nothing Ever Was, Anyway, had written that “(…) “for me, the revelation of the session came when Manfred” (Eicher) “suggested that we play some slow free pieces”. (…) “The revelation of this music somehow was that freedom is not a concept that can be reserved for any one particular style of improvised music.”
Then, the trio had seen its personality change, Mark Helias taking Peacock’s bass chair on the great album titled Storyteller (2003).
To anticipate my conclusion, I’ll say that Azure is an album that never disappoints. Very well recorded, by the way, it shows the double bass loud and clear: we’re long past those times when the sound of the acoustic four-string appeared to come from a different county, or just disappeared inside vinyl’s noise floor; we are also well past the stage when the double bass was supposed to “comp”.
Compositions and improvisations are shared equally, and there are also two solo pieces, titled – you’ll never guess it – Bass Solo and Piano Solo: dense, intense, both say a lot in a short time, something which also could be said of all the album tracks, which appear to be quite longer than their (written) duration.
Album opener is a Crispell composition titled Patterns. It’s a theme that in a way reminded me of some piano explorations by Muhal Richard Abrams, especially so the second time the theme is stated, at about 6′., the track near to its close. The piece develops in a dialogic way, quite controlled. There’s a fine, long, “swinging” moment from the double bass, the piano acting as counterpoint. The double bass, solo, brings the piece to its close. A bit strange, the first track is maybe the most difficult, also dark-sounding, of the whole CD: this is a pragmatic consideration which I’m sure is quite alien to the artistic vision of all great musicians, but I’ll invite readers who are not used to those climates not to abandon their listening exploration, going on to track #2.
Goodbye – Crispell again – is a great “ballad”: just like with the parting of the clouds, the sun appears. Here the sound is clearer – which doesn’t imply that the material is any easier: it took me a while to notice that what at first had sounded to me like a “comp” bass part to a piano solo was in fact a written part where bass parts were later “echoed” by the piano.
By Peacock/Crispell, Leapfrog is “jumpy” as per its title, with a dense development.
Waltz After David M, by Crispell, is a “jazzy” piece that’s quite accessible. After an intro that I’ll call “à la Paul Bley”, there’s a fine theme that would also be perfect when performed on accordion. There’s a fine piano performance, book-ending a long bass solo.
Lullaby, by Peacock, has a complex theme: after a chord sequence from the piano, there’s a melodic phrase from the double bass, then a passage played unison (which to my “rock” ears sounded quite Hopper-like), then repeated. There’s a double bass solo with piano backing, playing chords, then a piano solo. It’s a fine composition, dunno about the title.
The Lea, by Peacock, is brief but with substance. It opens for solo bass, then the theme is performed on piano, then it’s time for some bass variations.
Penned by Peacock/Crispell, Blue is the most “jazzy”-sounding, “swinging”, piece, maybe what one would normally expect from a “jazz duo album”? Great economy of means, and what’s that, maybe a pinch of Blue Note from the 60s?
Puppets, by Peacock, opens for piano, then there’s a long episode with bass played arco, quite cello-like (Paul Chambers? Richard Davis?). A slide on a bass note signals the start of a brief piano part, the end.
Closing track Azure, by Peacock/Crispell, is an airy, placid, “ballad”. Arpeggios that take their time, both instruments traveling parallel. “Tremolo” for two hands, pedal.
Beppe Colli