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| News/Interviews |
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| PREVIEW Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in Earshot Magazine |
Dave Peck has not been away, and yet at Jazz Alley this month, he’s making something of a comeback. In fact, says one of the city’s finest-ever jazz pianists, a few months ago he wasn’t sure he would ever again play the piano, which he plays so introspectively, subtly, and well. “I had a weird congenital thing that waited until I was 52 to bother me,” he explains. He underwent surgery to relieve pain caused by a thumb tendon catching in the doo-whatsits that hold the whole works together. “The thumb would snap and ratchet,” Peck says. It is, then, with great relief to him, and his fans, that he appears for two evenings this month in a rhythmic, romantic trio with two stellar accompanists, bassist Jeff Johnson and drummer Joe La Barbera. During the short run, Peck will record the third live album he has made at the Seattle club, for 2008 release. The first was in 1987 – Bud Shank Quartet at Jazz Alley – while the second was the Peck Johnson/La Barbera trio’s first recording Out of Seattle, Live at Jazz Alley, from 2002. The trio also released Good Road in 2005, and won the Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award for NW Acoustic Jazz Ensemble of the Year and NW Recording of the Year on the strength of it. The success of the earlier live recordings was not all that encouraged Peck to return to Jazz Alley. There is also the club’s new Hamburg Steinway. Peck says: “Jazz Alley is a great place to hear Jazz in Seattle and now they have this exquisite piano. For a piano player this is nirvana.” Playing the instrument will, he hopes, put an end to something of an annus horribilis, or at least a stretch that he is happy to have survived with his playing and joy in jazz intact. Even before his hand problems, he suffered a flare-up of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that he began to experience in 1995. But it, too, he has happily overcome. In his trio mates, Peck has ideal companions for a return to great form. He knew
La Barbera’s playing well before meeting him, because the drummer had worked for years with Bill Evans, one of Peck’s favorite keyboardists. He finally met La Barbera in person through Bud Shank, who had collaborated with Peck on, among other albums, Tales of the Pilot: Bud Shank Plays The Music Of Dave Peck (Capri, 1990). Peck’s meeting with La Barbera came at the Centrum Jazz Port Townsend annual workshop and festival, while Shank was running those. “Joe is just such a nice guy and a great player that I immediately wanted to play with him,” Peck says. La Barbera, who teaches at California Institute of the Arts, has appeared on more than 130 albums, with leaders like Hank Jones, Kenny Wheeler, Eddie Daniels, and his brother Pat La Barbera. As for Johnson, Peck gravitated to him for the same reason so many fine pianists have, including Jessica Williams and Bill Anschell, along with a host of other national leaders. Says Peck: “I heard Jeff many times after he first moved to town and I just immediately wanted to play with him, and finally the circumstances arose.” Peck says the trio gives him “first of all, the freedom to do whatever I want. Their input is beautiful, powerful, and extremely flexible, so I never feel like there is any limit to what we could do or what we could try, which is just a great feeling.” Why record live? Peck says he doesn’t necessarily prefer that over working in the studio; however, “it is very different because it’s more under the gun, and if you forget about the recording equipment there, and pretend you’re not making a record, the music is a bit different, more open-ended, and of course you’re getting feedback from the audience and that’s helpful.” As in the past, he’ll concentrate on standards, but with a broad sense of the term. “I’m scouring my record collection and other peoples’ collections to find tunes new to me,” he said a month out from the dates. He also was looking through old tune lists from gigs from throughout his career, which he has studiously kept for just such a time as this. He says: “ |
| Earshot Jazz/Peter Monaghan/September 2007 |
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