ANTHONY WILLIAMS - Spring (1965-2000) RM / 24 Bit By RVG / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Considering the extraordinary talent assembled for Tony Williams' second Blue Note date as a leader, this could have been a landmark session. Unfortunately, it's not. Spring isn't totally forgettable; on the contrary, the fire expected by members of the Miles Davis Quintet (Williams, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter), all thoroughly influenced by "the new thing," were unleashed completely from Miles' tight rein. Add tenor saxophonist Sam Rivers and Albert Ayler bassist Gary Peacock into this mix and that influence thrived. However, the five Tony Williams compositions (including the drum only "Echo") often failed to provoke the musicians into reaching crucial unity, making Spring haphazard, falling short of the expected goal. Following Spring, Williams would not release another solo date for four years, returning on the Polydor label with the groundbreaking electric rock trio recording Emergency! by Al Campbell
Tracklist :
1    Extras    8:08
Tony Williams
2    Echo    5:02
Tony Williams
3    From Before    6:51
Tony Williams
4    Love Song    8:24
Tony Williams
5    Tee    10:29
Tony Williams
Credits :
Bass – Gary Peacock
Drums – Anthony Williams
Piano – Herbie Hancock
Recorded By – Rudy Van Gelder
Tenor Saxophone – Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter

PAUL BLEY / FRANZ KOGLMANN / GARY PEACOCK - Annette (1992-2001) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

 

This trio date is dedicated to the music of Annette Peacock, former wife of both pianist Paul Bley and bassist Gary Peacock. While Bley is the undisputed leader on this date (as he has recorded many of these pieces before), it is flügelhorn and trumpet player Franz Koglmann who arranged them in such an exquisite manner. The majority of the pieces included here were originally composed as songs. They were vehicles for expressing the interior, haunted world that Ms. Peacock inhabits and featured her lilting, edgy voice, which slips and slithers through her deceptively simple melodies before erupting into a shriek of ecstasy or pain. Her music is the undercarriage -- the skeletal structure-- for her poetry to hang itself on. This trio treats these 12 compositions in much the same way. The music is so sparse, so lacking in adornment, that at times, tension replaces the subtle dynamic shifts in Ms. Peacock's compositions. The harmonic construction employed by Bley on this recording is used nowhere else in his vast oeuvre. The set begins with a solo piano rendering of "Touching." An open minor chord (strung with spare notes for accent) gives way to more modal chords, creating a sonic architecture that doesn't reach, but burrows deeply into itself. (It's also interesting to note that the record ends with the same tune, but played with Peacock's bass as a foundation for the terse improvisation.) Next is Koglmann's opportunity to reveal his ability for understatement with "El Cordobes." The trumpet comes off playing a tango line joined note for note by Bley, stating a theme evoking distance and melancholy before melding fully into Ms. Peacock's sad song. Koglmann also briefly quotes several selections from Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain before allowing Peacock's bass to lead him back toward the original melody. Bley shades each of the trumpet lines almost imperceptibly as Peacock takes the trio down the labyrinth of this song's subtle complexity. Bley enters fully about midway through, changing tempo and mode to carry the improvisation off into yet another songlike structure before the trio fades into silence. "Kid Dynamite" is an example of Ms. Peacock's humor and interest in cultural Americana. The opening theme stated by Bley comes straight out of Copland filtered through Fats Waller. The blues are jubilant here, spiked and adorned with all manner of swing and flourish. Each chorus pushes the threshold a bit until "Kid Dynamite" concludes with a collage of smattered notes and chords from the entire trio. But perhaps "Albert's Love Theme" best defines the lyrical and emotional concerns that Ms. Peacock's songs deal with. Here, Koglmann's lonely flügelhorn introduces a lyric phrase so fraught with melancholy and tenderness that it nearly disintegrates as Peacock's bass enters the tune. Breadth, range, and harmony are all contained in these simple lines. The tension held between both Koglmann and Peacock is nearly unbearable before the track whispers to a close, completely unresolved. As the record closes with the second take of "Touching" (this time with just Koglmann and Peacock), the listener has encountered a world of musical sound so completely focused within that, for a few moments, it is difficult to hear or see anything outside of its muted colors and textures. There isn't anything else to play after Annette that wouldn't seem superfluous or bombastic. With this album, the trio of Bley, Peacock, and Koglmann has created more than just a tribute to a great artist -- it has offered a look deep inside the musical psyche of a true original. by Thom Jurek
 Tracklist:
1 Touching 5:52
Annette Peacock
2 El Cordobes 8:30
Annette Peacock
3 Cartoon 6:26
Annette Peacock
4 Albert's Love Theme 3:46
Annette Peacock
5 Kid Dynamite 4:26
Annette Peacock
6 Miracles 6:47
Annette Peacock
7 Blood 5:03
Annette Peacock
8 Annette 6:26
Paul Bley / Franz Koglmann / Gary Peacock
9 Both 4:26
Annette Peacock
10 Blood 2:46
Annette Peacock
11 Mister Joy 8:37
Paul Bley / Annette Peacock
12 Touching 1:45
Annette Peacock
Credits:
Double Bass – Gary Peacock
Piano – Paul Bley
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Franz Koglmann
Written-By – Annette Peacock (tracks: 1 to 7, 9 to 12)

PAUL BLEY / GARY PEACOCK - Partners (1991-2001) RM / FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Paul Bley had known and collaborated with Gary Peacock since 1962, so by the time this duo session was recorded, one could expect that a certain degree of musical empathy would be in play. And yes, here there is plenty of the give and take of two old friends who do not go along with the mainstream jazz program. Yet one could also call this an album of twin monologues, for ten of the 15 tracks here are solo improvisations for each player, with the five duo numbers interspersed between them. Twice, a pair of Peacock's bass solos form a sandwich around a Bley solo track, setting up a symmetry that is fulfilled by the subsequent duo numbers. Moreover, on the first five minutes of the lengthy duo track "Who's Who Is It?," Bley and Peacock play their passages separately, one after another, before Peacock's free basslines stiffen sufficiently to provide a walking, swinging partner for Bley. As for other duo tracks, the CD opens with a lovely duet bearing the significant title "Again Anew," and they put together a great Latin-flavored workout on Ornette Coleman's "Latin Genetics." The parting shot "No Pun Intended" is a humorous, atonal, avant-garde, extended-techniques adventure at the opposite stylistic pole of the opening track. Without slighting Bley's contribution in the least, it is Peacock who makes the most inventive impression on this disc; his solos sustain high interest throughout -- a tough thing to pull off on the bass -- and his instrument is beautifully captured by the engineers. by Richard S. Ginell  
Tracklist:
1    Again Anew 6:32    
Paul Bley / Gary Peacock
2    Pleiades Skirt 2:12    
Gary Peacock
3    Octavon 2:13    
Paul Bley
4    Latin Genetics 5:07
Ornette Coleman
5    Workinoot 4:37
Gary Peacock
6    Afternoon of a Dawn, Pts. 1-3 5:33
Paul Bley
7    Hand in Hand 4:44
Paul Bley / Gary Peacock
8    Satyr Satire 2:41
Gary Peacock
9    Lull-A-Bye 3:31
Paul Bley
10    Twitter Pat1 1:35
Gary Peacock    
11    Who's Who Is It? 11:37
Paul Bley / Gary Peacock
12    Gently, Gently 2:11
Gary Peacock
13    Majestique 3:06
Paul Bley
14    Pot Luck 2:48
Gary Peacock
15    No Pun Intended  3:08
Paul Bley / Gary Peacock
Credits:
Bass – Gary Peacock (tracks: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 to 12, 14, 15)
Composed By – Gary Peacock (tracks: 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10 to 12, 14, 15), Ornette Coleman (tracks: 4), Paul Bley (tracks: 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15)
Piano – Paul Bley (tracks: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15)

BILL CONNORS - Of Mist and Melting (1977) APE (image+.cue), lossless

A beautiful session by the ever searching guitarist Bill Connors - showing part of the musical direction that Connors first took after leaving Chick Corea's first jazz-rock incarnation of the "Return To Forever" band (following the departure of vocalist Flora Purim - due to legal problems, her husband percussionist Airto Moreira, and saxophonist/flautist Joseph "Joe Farrell" Firrantello from the earlier latin-jazz "Return To Forever" band). The intense, lyrical, and introspective Bill Connors' originals on the "Of Mist And Melting" session continued to show his great talents as a composer - compositions which bassist Gary Peacock both praised and also used in his jazz composition classes and workshops following his return to Seattle, Washington after recording the session in December of 1977. Note: the piece "Melting" is also known under the title of "Spanish Flames" from live Bill Connors / James "Jimmy" Giuffre duet performances. by Martin Totusek
Tracklist:
1 Melting 11:31
Bill Connors
2 Not Forgetting 6:30
Bill Connors
3 Face In The Water 3:25
Bill Connors
4 Aubade 9:36
Bill Connors
5 Café Vue 5:37
Bill Connors
6 Unending 7:33
Bill Connors
Credits:
Bass – Gary Peacock
Composed By – Bill Connors
Drums – Jack DeJohnette
Guitar – Bill Connors
Saxophone – Jan Garbarek