Wikiwand AI

Annette Peacock

American musician (born 1941) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Annette Peacock (born 1941)[1][2][3] 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.

Born1941 (age 84–85)
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
GenresFree jazz, avant-garde jazz, electronic, art rock
OccupationsComposer, musician, songwriter, producer, arranger
InstrumentsVocals, synthesizer, keyboards
Quick facts Background information, Born ...
Annette Peacock
Background information
Born1941 (age 84–85)
Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
GenresFree jazz, avant-garde jazz, electronic, art rock
OccupationsComposer, musician, songwriter, producer, arranger
InstrumentsVocals, synthesizer, keyboards
Years active1960s–present
Labelsironic US, ECM, RCA, Sony, BMG
Websitewww.annettepeacock.com
Close

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.[4] She grew up in California.[5]

She moved to New York to marry jazz bassist Gary Peacock in 1960.[5] During the early 1960s, she was an associate and guest of Timothy Leary[4] 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[4][5] while she was married to Gary Peacock. After their divorce, Peacock married the pianist Paul Bley.[6][7] Her compositions appeared on Bley's album Ballads and influenced the style of ECM Records.[5] 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.[4]

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 television advertisements and an appearance on The Johnny Carson Show.[8] Her official debut solo album, I'm the One (RCA Victor), was released in 1972.[9]

During the 1970s and 1980s, she worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Allan Holdsworth, Evan Parker, Brian Eno, Bill Bruford, Mike Garson, Mick Ronson before moving back to the U.S.[5] The album An Acrobat's Heart (ECM, 2000) took two years to compose and arrange, and broke her 12-year hiatus from recording.[10]

Critical reception

"Annette Peacock is a stone cold original – an innovator, an outlier, authentically sui generis," said John Doran of The Quietus.[11]

Discography

As leader

  • 1971 I Belong To A World That's Destroying Itself the authorized Ironic 2014 re-issue of Peacock's first solo album 1971 mis-credited as Bley Peacock Synthesizer Show: Revenge [12]
  • 1972 I'm the One (RCA Victor) (reissued in 2010 on ironic US)
  • 1978 X-Dreams (Aura Records)
  • 1979 The Perfect Release (Aura)
  • 1981 Live in Paris released against her wishes (Metronome, LP only)
  • 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)

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

As composer

Annette Peacock wrote at least 15 compositions specifically for Paul Bley's repertoire, which he performed/recorded many times through the decades. As well, her compositions have been recorded by Marilyn Crispell, Mick Ronson, Affinity, Andrew Poppy, Bill Bruford, Liam Noble, Howard Riley, Eliana Glass, Al Kooper, BleySchool, Ava Cherry, Morcheeba, Karin Krog, Coldcut, Barry Green, Kazuo Imai, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Ethan Iverson, Frank Kimbrough, David Gilmore, Marc Copland, Mario Pavone, and others.

Compositions appeared on

References

External links

Related Articles

Timelines

Top Qs

Fact Checks