Across a career that began in the early 1960s, Gary Peacock has been a crucial double-bass foil for Bill Evans, Paul Bley, Marilyn Crispell and Keith Jarrett and others. Empathy with advanced pianists has been a speciality, but he has also been an uninhibited free-jazz player, notably in volcanic collaboration with Albert Ayler. Peacock is partnered by thoughtful pianist Marc Copland on this celebratory 80th birthday set, with Joey Baron on drums. They don’t play like a regular jazz-piano trio, often preferring tentative exchanges of clipped motifs and enigmatic queries to busy collective stretches or straight swing, and with considerable space for meditative individual statements. Peacock originals such as the delicate, folk-dancey Gaia, the impulsive Moor and the pulsating Vignette, with its imploringly fragile melody, receive slow-burn treatments that exert an increasingly compelling grip. Scott LaFaro’s Gloria’s Step is warmly re-created within the Evans trio mould. For those who know and love the participants, And Now This is captivating. Newcomers might need to give it a little quality time first.
