Charlie Peacock - Love Press Ex-Curio

[GA Russell]

I got an album today that you might be interested to learn about. Charlie Peacock is a Christian music pianist who has recently come out with a jazz album. Love Press Ex-Curio is surprisingly avant garde for someone with his non-jazz experience.

Did you ever hear an album that you liked, but you thought you were listening to at the wrong time of year? This album gives me that feeling. None of the songs have any melody (in the normal sense of the word). I enjoy this kind of jazz during the winter months, and I expect to like this album a lot more in February. For me, December is the month of Christmas and other laidback and joyful music, and this is by no means laidback.

Players include Ravi Coltrane, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kirk Whalum and Joey Baron. It has the sound of a lot of overdubbing and mixing. There is a pretty fair amount of electronic keyboards in the background, some of which is a new age contribution to the mix. But this doesn't make it any less of a jazz album. New Agers would hate this.

Two reviewers each on both Amazon and CD Universe give this five stars. I think the synthesizer programming prevents me from giving it that, but I will probably give it four stars when I make up my mind.

I'm going to put this away till after the first of the year, and then give it a serious chance. I expect that I'm going to really like it, but not till after Christmas.

Edited December 12, 2005 by GA Russell

[JSngry]

Players include Ravi Coltrane, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kirk Whalum and Joey Baron.

Pretty diverse cast, I must say.

[GA Russell]

Well, I did what I said I wouldn't do, and I listened to this one a number of times over the weekend. I guess you can't stay laidback every minute of December!

To give you a better idea of what it sounds like, I would compare it to what Miles was playing in the early 70s. I can't recall a specific album it reminds me of, but it sounds like something Miles would have done.

The CD is 9 tracks, 47 minutes long.

Peacock deserves the credit as the brains behind the project. He wrote all of the songs, and produced the album. However, as the pianist he is the weak link. Two tracks feature piano solos, and they are both clunkers.

I'm going to burn a copy omitting tracks 3 and 5, and enjoy the remainder.