“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.
Azure
Gary Peacock, Marilyn Crispell
“Azure” präsentiert die Duette zweier großer Improvisatoren, die ihre Kongenialität schon vor langer Zeit bewiesen haben. Gary Peacock und Marilyn Crispell machten einst im Trio mit dem verstorbenen Paul Motian auf ECM-Alben wie "Nothing ever was, anyway" und "Amaryllis" exeptionelle Musik. Aber auch als Duo haben sie eine umfangreiche gemeinsame Historie – die bisher allerdings noch nicht auf einem Album dokumentiert war. Mit dem ihnen gemeinsamen Sinn für lyrisches Spiel, ihren individuellen Kompositionsstilen und ihrem profunden Background in Sachen freies Spiel erweisen sie sich als außergewöhnliche musikalische Partner. Das in ihrer Heimat in Upstate New York aufgenommene Album enthält Stücke aus der Feder von Peacock ("Lullaby", "The Lea", "Puppets") und von Crispell ("Patterns“, "Goodbye", "Waltz After David M"), Duo-Improvisationen ("Azure", "Blue", "Leapfrog") und ausgesprochen erfindungsreiche Klavier- und Bass-Soli.
- 1Patterns
07:18 - 2Goodbye
06:18 - 3Leapfrog
05:47 - 4Bass Solo
03:08 - 5Waltz After David M
09:23 - 6Lullaby
06:38 - 7The Lea
02:43 - 8Blue
05:42 - 9Piano Solo
02:27 - 10Puppets
03:40 - 11Azure
06:03
Recorded in upstate New York, where they both live, it’s a conversational study with an implied commitment to parity: it features the same number of compositions by each player, along with a few spontaneous inventions. The results are often starkly beautiful, with the sort of contemplative glow that only maturity seems to provide.
Nate Chinen, The New York Times
Musically, most of these performances involve a significant departure from any attention to a tonal center. This is not a matter of harmonic ambiguity, nor does it involve the bursts of clusters distributed over an instrument’s gamut according to some stochastic principle (as might be found in many of the piano solos of Cecil Taylor) or the sort of over-determined application of serial methods that one might encounter in the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Many of the selections involve a far more lyrical approach to atonality, perhaps deliberately tweaking those who have studied too much music theory to admit of the possibility that atonal music can be lyrical. On the other hand the ostinato chord progressions of ‘Lullaby’, above which both Peacock and Crispell weave melodic lines, could have come from one of Erik Satie’s more mystical piano compositions.
Hopefully, this will be sufficient to convince the reader that this is not a recording of more-of-the-same tracks. Whether the method involves specific composition or spontaneous improvisation, there is considerable diversity across the album, even if the overall rhetoric is one of subdued introspection. This is one of the most convincing cases now available for the precept that jazz is ‘chamber music by other means’, a principle that, as I have previously observed, guided much of Motian’s approach to making music.
Stephen Smoliar, Examiner.com
Ein Duo verlangt die Fähigkeit zur Zwiesprache. Diese Fähigkeit leben die Duopartner Marilyn Crispell und Gary Peacock vorbildlich aus. Im Verbund mit dem unlängst verstorbenen Schlagzeuger Paul Motian haben die Pianistin und der Kontrabassist bereits den Klassiker ‚Amarillys’ eingespielt, nun breiten sie vorzugsweise lyrisch-abstrakte Stimmungen aus. Stimmungen, die sowohl Raum für Soloausflüge als auch für Hand-in-Hand-Gänge lassen. Zu einem soliden Preis erhält man demnach eine unvergleichliche Duo-Session sowie zwei umfangreiche Einzelporträts profilierter Einzelgänger. Während Crispell sparsam wogende Akkorde ausstreut, über einen äusserst filigranen und eher sanften Anschlag verfügt, wirkt Peacock, wenngleich 78 Jahre alt, sehr agil: er treibt voran, findet Kammern und Winkel, die allzeit der Abwege lohnen. Ein schlanker Ton zeichnet sein Spiel aus, ein stets relevanter Nachklang, eine Virtuosität, die nie ausgestellt daherkommt. Eine Zwiesprache von profunder Brillanz kommt da wie von selbst zustande.
Adam Olschewski, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The duo opens with Crispell's aptly named ‘Patterns’, its series of knotty thematic constructs played with temporal flexibility by the pianist (in impressive unison, with both hands), acting as a foundation for some jerky interactions with Peacock, but four songs later her ‘Waltz After Dave M’ explores melody in a most personal way; more clearly structured, it shows Crispell and Peacock at their most eminently lyrical and unashamedly beautiful. Peacock's tone is warmer than usual, and on his abstract ‘Puppets’, he delivers a rare arco solo, reaching for the outer edges and pushing through them to a more rarefied space; still, as esoteric as his playing might seem, there's always an inner logic and unerring focus. Peacock returns to pizzicato on the closing title track, one of three completely free improvisations. Paradoxical in its combination of hovering stasis and forward motion, it feels both as structured and thoroughly open as all of ‘Azure's eleven tracks. A long time coming, ‘Azure’ demonstrates, with pristine clarity and utter transparency, a unique partnership now finally unveiled for a larger audience on the year's most superb—and revealing—duo recording.
John Kelman, All About Jazz
When pianist Crispell and bassist Peacock collaborated with the late drummer Paul Motian on two ECM sessions around the millennium, the New York Times called them "two of the most beautiful piano-trio records in recent memory". Even without Motian, the evidence for that judgment is plain in these tracks. Crispell was an unruly free-jazz keyboard cyclone for years, but now combines that command in dizzyingly open situations with delicacy and patience; Peacock, a deep-rooted standard-songs player (he remains a cornerstone of Keith Jarrett's Standards Trio), has a voluminous vocabulary that doesn't desert him at the point when song structures dissolve (they're both meditating Buddhists, which maybe helps). Peacock (sounding more precise than on recent Jarrett recordings) sprints and crash-stops with Crispell's blurted melody on Patterns, ushers her around slow bends on the lilting Goodbye, and helps her devise what could be a ballet accompaniment on the all-improv Leapfrog.
John Fordham, The Guardian
Welch zarte Melodie ('Waltz After David M'), gefolgt von einer markanteren, die sich aus einer mehrfachen Sequenz zusammensetzt (‚Lullaby'), sowie einer kleinen folkartigen (‚The Lea'). Diese Stücke stehen im Zentrum des Albums, an exponierter Stelle also, eingerahmt von abstrakteren Kompositionen, improvisierten Dialogen und je einer Solo-Piece für Klavier bzw. für Bass. Marilyn Crispell und Gary Peacock haben, jeder für sich, von expressivem Free Play zu verhalten lyrischen Ausdrucksformen des Improvisierens gefunden.
Berthold Klostermann, Fono Forum
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.
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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