Annette Peacock

Annette Peacock
Background information
Born1941 (age 83–84)
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
GenresFree jazz, avant-garde jazz, electronic, art rock
Occupation(s)Composer, musician, songwriter, producer, arranger
Instrument(s)Vocals, synthesizer, keyboards
Years active1960s–present
Labelsironic US, ECM, RCA, Sony, BMG
Websitewww.annettepeacock.com

Annette Peacock (born 1941)[1][2] is an American composer, musician, songwriter, producer, and arranger. She is a pioneer in electronic music who combined her voice with one of the first Moog synthesizers in the late 1960s.

Biography

Annette Peacock was writing music by the time she was four years old. She is self-taught except for her time as a student at The Juilliard School in the early 1970s.[3] She grew up in California.[4]

Nee Coleman, she moved to New York to marry jazz bassist Gary Peacock in 1960.[4] During the early 1960s, she was an associate and guest of Timothy Leary[3] and Ram Dass at Millbrook, and was among the first to study Zen Macrobiotics with Michio Kushi, a discipline she continues to uphold. Peacock toured Europe with avant-garde jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler[3][4] while she was married to Gary Peacock, then pianist Paul Bley.[5][6] Her compositions appeared on Bley's album Ballads and influenced the style of ECM Records.[4] She was a pioneer in synthesizing electronic vocals after having been given a prototype of the first designed Moog synthesizer by its inventor, Robert Moog.[3]

She performed with the Bley-Peacock Synthesizer Show at New York's Town Hall in November 1969 and the next month at Philharmonic Hall which she promoted with late-night TV ads and an appearance on The Johnny Carson Show.[7] Her official debut solo album, I'm the One (RCA Victor), was released in 1972.[8]

During the 1970s and '80s, she worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Allan Holdsworth, Evan Parker, Brian Eno, Bill Bruford, Mike Garson, Mick Ronson before moving back to the U.S.[4] The album An Acrobat's Heart (ECM, 2000) took two years to compose and arrange, and broke her twelve-year hiatus from recording.[9]

Critical reception

"Annette Peacock is a stone cold original – an innovator, an outlier, authentically sui generis," said John Doran of The Quietus.[10]

Discography

As leader

  • 1972 I'm the One (RCA Victor) (reissued in 2010 on ironic US, and in 2012 on Future Days)
  • 1978 X-Dreams (Aura Records)
  • 1979 The Perfect Release (Aura)
  • 1982 Sky Skating (ironic)
  • 1983 Been in the Streets Too Long (ironic)
  • 1986 I Have No Feelings (ironic)
  • 1988 Abstract-Contact (ironic)
  • 2000 An Acrobat's Heart (ECM)
  • 2005 31:31 (ironic US)
  • 2014 I Belong to a World That's Destroying Itself [aka Revenge] (ironic US)[11]

Singles

  • "Don't Be Cruel" / "Dear Bela" (Aura, 1978)
  • "Love's Out to Lunch" / "Rubber Hunger" (Aura, 1979)
  • "Sky-skating" / "Taking It as It Comes" (ironic, 1981)

Compilations

As co-leader or sidewoman

Compositions appeared on

References

  1. ^ "Artist: Annette Peacock | SecondHandSongs". secondhandsongs.com.
  2. ^ "Browse In Jazz, Electronic Instruments | Grove Music Online | Grove Music". Grove Music Online.
  3. ^ a b c d Adler, David R. "Annette Peacock". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  4. ^ a b c d e Adams, Simon (2002). Kernfeld, Barry (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries Inc. p. 252. ISBN 1-56159-284-6.
  5. ^ arwulf, arwulf. "Paul Bley". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  6. ^ Morton, Brian (8 January 2016). "Paul Bley: Pianist who played with Charlie Parker, Sony Rollins and Ornette Coleman". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-07. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  7. ^ Holmes, Thom (16 October 2016). "On the Road: Early "Live" Moog Modular Artists". The Bob Moog Foundation. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  8. ^ Fordham, John (14 July 2011). "Annette Peacock: I'm The One". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  9. ^ "Annette Peacock: An Acrobat's Heart". All About Jazz. 1 November 2000. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  10. ^ "She's The One: Annette Peacock Interviewed". The Quietus. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  11. ^ "Annette Peacock | Album Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 March 2017.