Some of the best moments by Keith Jarrett’s venerable Standards Trio occur when he, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette abandon the parameters of their signifier altogether. In this particular case from early in their association, they discard the reliable territory of the American songbook in favor of collectively improvised interplay that takes on almost Eastern devotional dimensions. Jarrett’s usual tropes are present and even magnified under the circumstances, but oddly enough, they enhance rather than diminish the four performances, each taped in different U.S. city. Here is the pianist allowing his ascetic and affective impulses unbridled avenues of expression. “Dancing” works off a darkly syncopated ostinato, incessant in its recurrence and gravitas. “Endless” is epic in scope and intent, rippling out as a series of variations on a pathos-pregnant melodic motif. Peacock and DeJohnette lock and release, generating oceanic swells of rhythm while paying particular attention to building texture around Jarrett’s sweeping and dramatic patterns. The effect brings to mind the emotional peaks and valleys of a tumultuous romantic relationship and Jarrett’s audible sighs, murmurs and swoons magnify the mental impression. The liners carry the supercilious fungus that seems to sprout regularly from the the fissures in the pianist’s Ivory Tower psyche and the Zen enso inscribed on the cover is also a bit much. Musically though it all works, maddeningly substantiating Jarrett’s claims of instrumental superiority.
Posted by derek on September 30, 2007 1:22 PMNice summary, I love this one, it's probably my favorite of the Standards Trio.
Posted by: Gerardo at October 2, 2007 7:52 AMI have been into Gary Peacock lately, I found it extremely inspiring that he held his ground and refused to play with Elvis Costello on a Lee Konitiz quartet gig a few years back.
There is a 30+ page discussion about it on Talk Bass.
I mean, both Peacock and Costello are jerks (Peacock probably moreso afaic), but of course you know whose music I prefer.
Posted by: clifford at October 2, 2007 10:49 PMDamon - do you have a link to that discussion thread? Just curious.
I like Costello ok. Some of the early songs are classics of a sort. He hired Marc Ribot to good effect in the late 80's and I have a good memory of him making his way over to the Orensanz center for the Vision Fest's Katrina/New Orleans benefit concert. He'd just performed at another big Katrina benefit (at Madison Square Garden, I think), but made sure to get downtown to honor his committment to the Vision folks. His tunes that night with the Jazz Passengers were nicely rousing jazz/soul rave-ups. Quite a surreal night getting to hear Steve Buscemi introduce Kidd Jordan and hearing Yo La Tengo + William/Sabir/Daniel/Roy romp through some NOLA classics like "Ruler of My Heart" and "Ooh Poo Pah Doo."
But back on point - Gary Peacock is great. I especially like the Ayler stuff (duh,obviously), but also his playing with Paul Bley and there's a really nice duo with Frisell on the Postcard label. Didn't know he had a rep as a jerk. What's the source on that, Clifford? Maybe Jarrett-itis is contagious?
Re: the Peacock/Costello thing:
I once saw a great Mexican free jazz bass player, Aarón Cruz, stand down from the stage in a gig in Oaxaca with Spanish guitar player Pere Soto and Argentinian (based in Mexico City) drummer Hernán Hecht, when Pere spontaneously asked a grown-up woman from the audience to come up and sing some Mexican boleros with the band. Both the lady (who looked like a very affable person) and Pere looked quite shocked, but Aarón went ahead and politely sat down in the front row with the rest of the audience while the lady sang. At that moment, I thought it was incredibly rude of him to have done that, until I saw things from his perspective. Now I don't think it was a rude thing at all, since Aarón didn't express contempt for a less-trained singer nor had a snobbish attitude regarding boleros or traditional music; he was just being true to his own music and held his ground.
A couple of years later, when he played in my hometown (with a disastrous and very commercial female jazz singer, ironically), I asked him about the Oaxaca incident. He didn't remember the exact details, but I told him the whole story and he reminded it; he said that since the band hadn't rehearsed compositions, he only desired to play free improvisations that night, implying that if the lady singer had rehearsed with them, he wouldn't have had any objection to playing with her.
So, Peacock was right to do what he did, IMHO; although his manner of expressing that he didn't want to play was perhaps rude (according to the versions I've read).
There was a very outraged letter written by a Costello fan and published in All About Jazz that was hysterically funny.
Posted by: Gerardo at October 3, 2007 2:19 PMDoes Aarón Cruz have any recordings out?
Posted by: Damon Smith at October 3, 2007 5:37 PMDamon: I just posted twice a very long response to you, but it got held up for moderator's approval. I'll send you an email instead.
Posted by: Gerardo at October 4, 2007 9:30 AMDamon: Yes, he has several recordings but none as a leader. He's one third of México's (arguably) best improvising ensemble, Cráneo de Jade, with sax player Remi Álvarez and drummer Hernán Hecht. They have 3 cd's out, "Cráneo de Jade", "Papirolas" and "Pleione". Aarón plays both electric and double bass there. They have an old website at http://www.geocities.com/craneodejade/, and there are some videos in there I think. I think their 3 albums are OOP now, but the mp3 can be purchased at http://www.misrolas.com/downloadmusic/artist.php?id=75 and http://www.iguanamusic.com.
Aarón also plays jazz quite well; he's in a very nice disc by drummer Hernán Hecht's X-Pression Quartet, called "X-Pression Quartet.com.mx". That CD can be bought at CDBaby and at the both places mentioned above (iguana.com and misrolas.com).
Or drop me your mailing address at gerardojazz (at) gmail.com and I'll send copies of them.
On a shameless plug, there are a few videos here of a trio gig I organized last year with Aarón, sax player Remi Álvarez and Yucatán guitar player Armando Martín (the quality is very low, they were taken with a photo camera, and are only excerpts): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo75whC_Wxo
I'm also producing with sax player Remi Álvarez his first solo CD recording, that should be out by the end of the year. Damon, if you (or anyone else) are interested in the Mexican free scene, check out www.jazzorca.com, the website of Mexico City venerable sax player/multi-instrumentalist Germán Bringas.
Posted by: Gerardo at October 4, 2007 9:33 AMLo siento, Gerardo. The new anti-Glenn measures I just installed in the Commentellen must’ve mistook your missive for a trifle. Might be a “G” thang ;-0
Posted by: derek at October 4, 2007 11:32 AMHaha no problem Derek, thanks as always!
Nothin' but a G thang, baby.
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