Annette Peacock
Encyclopedia
Biography
Annette Peacock began composing at the age of four. Her mother was a violist in the San Diego and Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestras.At 19, Annette married jazz bassist Gary Peacock
Gary Peacock
Gary Peacock is an American jazz double-bassist.-Biography:After military service in Germany, in the early sixties he worked on the west coast with Barney Kessel, Bud Shank, Paul Bley and Art Pepper, then moved to New York. He worked there with Bley, the Bill Evans trio , and Albert Ayler's trio...
who has worked with Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, Sonny Rollins
Sonny Rollins
Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins is a Grammy-winning American jazz tenor saxophonist. Rollins is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. A number of his compositions, including "St...
, and currently Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
. At the beginning of the 60's she toured with Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
, studied Zen Macrobiotics with Michio Kushi
Michio Kushi
Michio Kushi born 1926 in Japan, helped to introduce modern macrobiotics to the United States in the early 1950s. He has lectured about philosophy, spiritual development, health, food and diseases at conferences and seminars all over the world.-Background:After World War II, Kushi studied with...
, and was a close associate of Timothy Leary
Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary was an American psychologist and writer, known for his advocacy of psychedelic drugs. During a time when drugs like LSD and psilocybin were legal, Leary conducted experiments at Harvard University under the Harvard Psilocybin Project, resulting in the Concord Prison...
at the psychedelic center in Millbrook
Millbrook, New York
Millbrook is a village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is often said to be a "low-key version of the Hamptons" and one of the wealthiest towns in New York State. Millbrook's estimated town population was 1,551 in 2008. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, an hour and thirty...
.
In 1964, pianist Paul Bley
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, CM is a pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing.-Biography:...
first began featuring her avant-garde compositions - ultimately on over 60 records. At the end of the 1960s she and Bley became strongly associated with the musical possibilities of the newly-emerging synthesizer. Given a prototype by Robert Moog
Robert Moog
Robert Arthur Moog , commonly called Bob Moog was an American pioneer of electronic music, best known as the inventor of the Moog synthesizer.-Life:...
, Annette invented a way to externally augment and process her own voice through the synthesizer, as well as playing electric bass, elec. piano. and elec. vibraphone - most notably at Town Hall, and a concert produced by Annette at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
(New York City) which she promoted with spots on late night TV and a guest appearance on the Johnny Carson Show.
In 1968 she recorded Revenge for Polydor, and 1971 recorded I'm The One (voted by the journalists of WIRE magazine as one of the top 100 records that "shook the world") released by RCA in 1972; and appeared as a "Hologram" in a show and collaboration with Salvador Dali
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
. After which began her first gap of six years until the release of her next album X-Dreams
X-Dreams
X-Dreams was the fifth album by Annette Peacock, and was released in 1978.-Track listing:All compositions by Peacock unless stated.# My Mama Never Taught Me How to Cook # Real & Defined Androgens # Dear Bela # This Feel Within...
, when she was also recording with Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth
Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
on Bill Bruford
Bill Bruford
William Scott "Bill" Bruford is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring...
's first solo project, the prog-rock classic Feels Good to Me
Feels Good to Me
Feels Good to Me is the debut solo album by the British drummer Bill Bruford. The band Bruford grew out of the line-up assembled for this album, which was released in August 1978. Led by drummer Bill Bruford, the album also features guitarist Allan Holdsworth and John Goodsall, bassist Jeff Berlin,...
.
She started her own indie label ironicrecords in the UK and issued four albums from 1981 to 1988 (see discography) distributed by Rough Trade
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
.
In 1987 her vocals featured prominently in the track Goodbye Mr G on the Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy is an English composer, pianist, and record producer.-Biography:From 1974 to 1979 he studied music at Royal Holloway College and Goldsmiths College University of London, studying piano with Susan Bradshaw and earning a B.M...
album "45 Is" (released on the ZTT label). Here, Peacock performs one of her unique styles - a mixture of spoken, sung and sprechstimme vocals on the text provided.
In 1997, Manfred Eicher
Manfred Eicher
Manfred Eicher is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records and its subsidiaries.Eicher studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He is a record producer and a double-bass player. In 1969 he founded a record label in Munich called ECM - Edition of Contemporary Music...
commissioned Ms. Peacock to compose a project for string quartet and herself on piano and voice. An Acrobat's Heart, after a recording silence of 12 years, was released by ECM
ECM (record label)
ECM is a record label founded in Munich, Germany, in 1969 by Manfred Eicher. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a wide variety of recordings, and ECM's artists often refuse to acknowledge boundaries between genres...
in 2000. This followed from ECM's issue of the 1997 tribute double CD of Annette Peacock songs: "Nothing Ever Was, Anyway/Music of Annette Peacock".
Her song My Mama Never Taught Me How to Cook was included in the soundtrack of director Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
's classic indie film Chasing Amy in 1998.
At the beginning of 2006, she started-up her own label again ironic US with an unpromoted release 31:31. At the same time the result of her collaboration with Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
, Just For The Kick, was released on their current album Sound Mirrors distributed by Ninjatune.
Her music has also been recorded by: David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Busta Rhymes
Busta Rhymes
Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes ,Smith is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes...
, J-Live
J-Live
J-Live is an MC, DJ, and producer from New York.-Early career and The Best Part:...
, Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
, Morcheeba
Morcheeba
Morcheeba are a British band, mixing influences from trip hop, rock, R&B, and pop.They have produced 7 albums since 1995, two of which reached the UK top ten.-Biography:...
, Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny
Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.One of the most successful and critically acclaimed jazz musicians to come to prominence in the 1970s and '80s, he is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects...
, Al Kooper
Al Kooper
Al Kooper is an American songwriter, record producer and musician, known for organizing Blood, Sweat & Tears , providing studio support for Bob Dylan when he went electric in 1965, and also bringing together guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills to...
, Mick Ronson
Mick Ronson
Michael "Mick" Ronson was an English guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He is best known for his work with David Bowie, as one of The Spiders from Mars...
.
Studio albums
- Revenge (The Bigger the Love the Greater the Hate) (1968)
- I'm the One (1972)
- Dual Unity (1972)
- Improvise (1972)
- X-DreamsX-DreamsX-Dreams was the fifth album by Annette Peacock, and was released in 1978.-Track listing:All compositions by Peacock unless stated.# My Mama Never Taught Me How to Cook # Real & Defined Androgens # Dear Bela # This Feel Within...
(1978) - The Perfect Release (1979)
- Sky-skating (1981)
- Been in the Streets Too Long (1983)
- I Have No Feelings (1986)
- abstract-contact (1988)
- An Acrobat's HeartAn Acrobat's HeartAn Acrobat's Heart is an album by composer, arranger, producer, musician, poet and singer Annette Peacock recorded in 2000 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(2000) - 31:31 (2006)
- I'm The One (2010) 1st ed. CD reissue
Compilations
- Back To MineBack to MineBack to Mine is a series of mix albums, usually mixed by renowned DJs or composers of electronic music. The compilations usually feature artists other than the artist compiling the album, and are based on what the artist would play at home after a night out, rather than as part of a nightclub...
- Morcheeba (2001) - My Mama Never Taught Me How to Cook (2004)