CD ECM Records Gary Peacock Trio: Now This

2015

Gary Peacock - contrabas
Marc Copland - pian
Joey Baron - tobe

In the realm of the piano trio the bar is set high, and creative bassist Gary Peacock has helped raise it in the groups of Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett. Now This is an album with the bassist’s current trio, recorded last summer in Oslo. Powerful new versions of some Peacock classics – such as “Moor”, “Vignette”, “Requiem” and “Gaya” – are interspersed with recent compositions. Marc Copland and Joey Baron each contribute tunes, and the group also tackles Scott La Faro’s “Gloria’s Step”. In this band, roles are very evenly shared, and this is an optimum context in which to appreciate the melodic invention of Peacock’s bass playing. Marc Copland always honours the needs of the compositions and Joey Baron supplies both drive and sensitive detail. “Now This” is issued in time for Gary Peacock’s 80th birthday on May 12th.

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‘Now This’ contains seven Peacock tunes, old ones like ‘Moor’ and ‘Requiem’ and pretty new ones like ‘Christa’. All are like passing revelations from a Peacock solo; spare, self-contained figures of mysterious expectancy. In his haunting high bass lines, melodies linger, resolve and disappear. As for Copland, he is the right pianist for an album about atmosphere and mood. But his quietude is deceptive. His scattered fragments and his counterintuitive chords create continuous subtle diversions. Baron is also subtle and provocative, and essential as a colorist.
Thomas Conrad, Jazz Times (Editor’s Pick)

The cover shot of a night sky riddled with interstellar points of light quickly serves as an apt visual analogy for the trio’s elastic approach. Copland’s command of supple melody is matched by that of his colleagues with Peacock frequently setting up lush swathes of counterpoint as on the undulating itinerary that is ‘This’. Copland’s ‘And Now’ works from a different source of gently fractured melody and enveloping rhythm with the leader building a brief, but involving solo out of a simple line as Baron’s brushes caress the corners around him. The drummer’s ‘Esprit de Muse’ opens with another studied Peacock statement, one that quietly stuns in its amalgam of strength and poise. The entry of Copland and the composer finds the studio air redolent with the figurative scent of calmly thrilling communication. What they do collectively with ‘Moor’, one of Peacock’s most venerable and recognizable lines, is right on par. Peacock became an octogenarian in May of this year. Based on the manifold pleasures inherent to this album age is nothing but a number.
Derek Taylor, Dusted Magazine

Not only an excellent portrait of the bassist in winter – his abilities undiminished – but also an exercise in the possibilities of the piano trio in the 21st century.
Thom Jurek, Allmusic.com