Annette Peacock’s The One…

by Bill Henderson

If Annette Peacock hasn’t so far matched Carla Bley in the number and level of her achievements (she’s only recorded four albums and the one prior to her current record was released six years ago) she does equal Bley in her imagination and ideas. Nevertheless, her limited output forms a fascinating body of work and she has predated Bley’s move into a more “popular” rock-directed idiom.

Earlier this summer, she (like Carla) had difficulty in coming to terms with a jazz-orientated gig in London. More recently, however (at the beginning of last month) she gave a much more successful concert at the London Lyceum, performing primarily material from her current album, in a stand-up lead singer’s role fronting a band, which although containing jazzers, revolved on a rock axis (with Bernie Holland and Brian Godding on guitars, Pete Lemer on keyboards, Kumu Harada on bass, Dave Sheen on drums and Darryl LeQue on percussion).

But Annette has been gradually moving in this direction since the start of the decade. And, indeed, evenwhen she started writing for Paul Bley in the mid ’60s, she was always writing songs; with lyrics, that is, although they weren’t performed as such at the time.

As well as her highly original song-writing and her undoubted talents as a singer, Annette has been one of the pioneers of the use of synthesizers (although it is an area which she has not been involved in actively for some years) and, in particular, the exploration of electronic treatment of the human voice. When nowadays everyone form Herbie Hancock to the New York avant garde rock of Suicide is using vocal treatments, it’s worth recalling that Annette was doing so with (Paul Bley) from the end of the ’60s.

Annette Peacock's 'I'm The One' was reissued in 2010

Annette’s history has been a constantly interesting one. Born in New York in ’41, she grew up in Southern California. She has been playing piano since she was a child but considers herself a totally untutored musician (“I only know of two real primitives in rock, that’s me and Beefheart,” was one of her characteristic quotes from a few years back.)

Her real involvement with in music began as the ’50s moved into the ’60s. She married bassist Gary Peacock in ’60, at a time when the “new wave” was taking jazz by the throat and sending it places it had never seen before . A climactic time that was to dramatically change the face of music and to turn a whole generation around, musicians and punters alike. Annette Peacock was one of them; her particular catalyst was Albert Ayler.

Filed under: avant garde, jazz, music, Albert Ayler, Annette Peacock, Miles Davis, Paul Bley

Annette Peacock and Carla Bley (1978)

Carla Bley and Annette Peacock, two of the most creative personalities in contemporary music, have independently progressed in parallel directions from being highly individualistic composers and performers in the jazz world. Bley has conceived and created at least one masterwork, while peacock is a pioneer in the use of synthesizers and electronics. Their present musical positions combine rock, jazz and even classical areas within unique conceptions that create totally original syntheses. We take a look at the past, present and  future of these leading ladies.

The First Ladies

Look up your jazz reference books and you’ll very likely find Carla Bley. Look up Annette Peacock and the chances are that she isn’t listed. This isn’t perhaps entirely surprising, given Bley’s reputation as a jazz performer, yet both have strong jazz credentials and have both progressed subsequently into other areas. The careers of the two women are in fact strikingly parallel and indeed intersect and overlap.

It’s not too much of an exaggeration to consider both Bley and Peacock as contemporary examples of “renaissance women” – multitalented, multifaceted and certainly with a high degree of charisma, both personal and musical.

Both are “natural” musicians, both are piano players. Carla was married to pianist Paul Bley and began writing for him; Annette was married to Bley’s bass player, Gary Peacock. Later, after Carla and Paul had divorced, Annette lived with Paul and wrote for and worked with him. Both women were also involved with the two most important bands of the “avant garde”. Carla was with Paul when his quintet was comprised of what was to become the Ornette Coleman Quartet – Ornette, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins (and was the engineer of the tapes that became the two Hillcrest Club albums on America and IAI). While with Gary, Annette became part of Ayler’s group with Cherry, Gary and Sunny Murray.

Later still, they both became influential and important in their own right – Carla as Cofounder and prime mover of The Jazz Composers’ Orchestra Association and a major composer, with at least one masterpiece to her name; Annette (with Paul Bley) pioneered the use of synthesizers and electronics in jazz and improvised music.

But both were moving away from strictly jazz towards rock with Carla denying any interest in jazz at all, joining the Jack Bruce/Mick Taylor band; and Annette moving into more “commercial” areas, primarily as a singer. But both remain highly original and singular composers.

They both played London recently and, while their directions have diverged widely from the days when their tunes would together make up the content of a Paul Bley album, the parallels remain. Their bands were a mixture of jazzers and rockers and their approaches and attitudes as idiosyncratic and as personal as ever.

Bill Henderson looks at their careers and talks to the two women most likely.

-From the September 1978 issue of ‘Black Music & Jazz Review’, article by Bill Henderson

Filed under: avant garde, jazz, music, Annette Peacock, Carla Bley, creative personalities, jazz world, rock jazz