GARY PEACOCK TRIO - Tangents
ECM 574 1910
Gary Peacock: double bass; Marc Copland: piano; Joey Baron: drums
Recorded Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, May 2016
Now in his eighth decade, you might expect Peacock to be looking for the easy life, not taking too many chances and putting his feet up. But on this set (the Trio's follow up to 2015's delightful 'Now This') we find him pushing further into new avenues of hard bop bass playing. There is a muscularity to the playing here, with solid bass lines that resonate not just through the speakers but into your very core. The way that Peacock coaxes such rich and liquid notes (and Manfred Eichner's excellent production) is spell-binding, and he continues to explore the ways in which the double-bass can carry the melody as well as drive the rhythm. The set opens with 'Contact'. This begins with a lyrical bass solo that draws the listener in to the tune, with Copland's piano trills suggesting something along the lines of a meditative, chamber piece, only to switch about halfway through to something that carries a Latin swing. This is one of five Peacock originals. Each of these has an irresistible tunefulness and swings like crazy, showing a deep appreciation of the structure of compositions and the ways in which this Trio works so well together. They revisit one of Peacock's well-known tunes, 'December Greenwings' (track 2) and draw from it an elegant warmth that compliments previous recordings that Peacock made of it with Jan Garbarek and Marilyn Crispell. 'Rumblin' (track 8) works from a delightfully simple bass figure that gets Peacock's fingers speeding up and down the fret board. Throughout, Baron's drumming provides an accompaniment that is less about marking time than about emphasising the emotion and mood of each bar of each tune.
In addition to Peacock's tunes, the CD has originals from Copland and a couple from Baron. Baron's tracks are exercises in rhythmic complexity that really showcase how the Trio's telepathic playing can turn on a dime and work a switchback of rhythmic changes. Copland's tune is a neat set of chord progressions that leave open spaces for Peacock to solo vigorously. They take a couple of cover versions, Alex North's theme to the film Spartacus and Miles Davis' 'Blue in green', and in both of these showcase the interplay between Peacock's bass and Copland's piano.
For me the real highlight of this excellent set is the 7 minutes free improvisation, 'Empty Forest' (track 6). In the liner notes, Peacock says, "It was just: 'start'. Marc, Joey and I are ideally suited to free playing together, the three of us. We're having the same experience in the moment, feeling the music together." The freedom that they display on this track is evident right across the set, and it was really a joy and an honour to be able (as a listener) to have some of the 'experience in the moment' that they shared during the recording.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
ECM 574 1910
Gary Peacock: double bass; Marc Copland: piano; Joey Baron: drums
Recorded Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano, May 2016
Now in his eighth decade, you might expect Peacock to be looking for the easy life, not taking too many chances and putting his feet up. But on this set (the Trio's follow up to 2015's delightful 'Now This') we find him pushing further into new avenues of hard bop bass playing. There is a muscularity to the playing here, with solid bass lines that resonate not just through the speakers but into your very core. The way that Peacock coaxes such rich and liquid notes (and Manfred Eichner's excellent production) is spell-binding, and he continues to explore the ways in which the double-bass can carry the melody as well as drive the rhythm. The set opens with 'Contact'. This begins with a lyrical bass solo that draws the listener in to the tune, with Copland's piano trills suggesting something along the lines of a meditative, chamber piece, only to switch about halfway through to something that carries a Latin swing. This is one of five Peacock originals. Each of these has an irresistible tunefulness and swings like crazy, showing a deep appreciation of the structure of compositions and the ways in which this Trio works so well together. They revisit one of Peacock's well-known tunes, 'December Greenwings' (track 2) and draw from it an elegant warmth that compliments previous recordings that Peacock made of it with Jan Garbarek and Marilyn Crispell. 'Rumblin' (track 8) works from a delightfully simple bass figure that gets Peacock's fingers speeding up and down the fret board. Throughout, Baron's drumming provides an accompaniment that is less about marking time than about emphasising the emotion and mood of each bar of each tune.
In addition to Peacock's tunes, the CD has originals from Copland and a couple from Baron. Baron's tracks are exercises in rhythmic complexity that really showcase how the Trio's telepathic playing can turn on a dime and work a switchback of rhythmic changes. Copland's tune is a neat set of chord progressions that leave open spaces for Peacock to solo vigorously. They take a couple of cover versions, Alex North's theme to the film Spartacus and Miles Davis' 'Blue in green', and in both of these showcase the interplay between Peacock's bass and Copland's piano.
For me the real highlight of this excellent set is the 7 minutes free improvisation, 'Empty Forest' (track 6). In the liner notes, Peacock says, "It was just: 'start'. Marc, Joey and I are ideally suited to free playing together, the three of us. We're having the same experience in the moment, feeling the music together." The freedom that they display on this track is evident right across the set, and it was really a joy and an honour to be able (as a listener) to have some of the 'experience in the moment' that they shared during the recording.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
