Annette Peacock

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Annette Peacock
Background information
Born (1941-02-09) 9 February 1941 (age 83)
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 8 January 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[edit]

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]

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 Das 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[edit]

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

Discography[edit]

As leader[edit]

  • 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[edit]

  • "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[edit]

As co-leader or sidewoman[edit]

Compositions appeared on[edit]

References[edit]

  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.

External links[edit]