Artist: Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock (May 12, 1935 – September 4, 2020) was an American jazz double bassist. 

He recorded a dozen albums under his own name, and also performed and recorded with major jazz figures such as avant garde saxophonist Albert Ayler, pianists Bill Evans, Paul Bley and Marilyn Crispell, and as a part of Keith Jarrett’s “Standards Trio” with drummer Jack DeJohnette. The trio existed for over thirty years, and recorded over twenty albums together.

After being discharged from the Army in 1956 after service in Germany, Peacock remained in Germany, playing with Hans Koller, Tony Scott, Bud Shank, Atilla Zoller, and others, before returning to Los Angeles. While there, Peacock heard the music of Ornette Coleman. Initially dismissive, he soon changed his mind: "It challenged that fixed position I had about what jazz improvisation should be and what the rules are. It created a pivot for me to embrace a much larger musical universe."

In 1962, Peacock moved to New York, where he played with Bley and musicians such as Jimmy Giuffre, Roland Kirk, George Russell, and Archie Shepp. He also joined Bill Evans' trio, which included drummer Paul Motian, who would become a long-time associate, recording the album Trio 64 with the group in December, 1963. 

In 1964, Peacock briefly joined Miles Davis' quintet, substituting for Ron Carter in April and May of that year. Reflecting on his time with Davis, he stated: “Miles probably said one of the most brilliant, useful, and necessary comments I've ever heard. Somebody was recording with him, and Miles looked at him and said, ‘What I want to hear is what you don't know.’

“That is really the key: not playing what you know, playing what you don't know. To do that, you have to get very quiet inside, listen, and surrender to whatever that particular musical setting is. So it doesn't make any difference whether I'm playing standards or free stuff, because you're giving up any kind of fixed positions or attitudes you may have about what it should or shouldn't be. And to do that, you have to be vulnerable, to be in a place where you realize that what you're after, you cannot know. It's not conceivable. But it's there. It's the muse. So it's kind of a switch from the self playing the muse to the muse playing the self.” 

In 1964, Peacock joined Albert Ayler's trio, which also featured drummer Sunny Murray, and went on to tour and record with him, appearing on the groundbreaking Spiritual Unity album among others.