Gary Peacock was born in Idaho on this date in 1935.  He played piano, trumpet and drums while in high school in Yakima, Washington, and studied piano at the Westlake School of Music in Los Angeles.  But it was when he was playing keyboard in an army band in Germany that he began to develop an interest in the bass.  When the bass player quit the band, he took over the chair and immediately knew it was the instrument for him.

In the 1960s Peacock was living in New York and collaborating with Paul Bley, and their playing was a major influence in developing the sound now associated with the ECM record label.

Gary Peacock also played with pianist Bill Evans, drummer Tony Williams and briefly replaced Ron Carter in the Miles Davis Quintet.  After studying Zen in Japan and biology at the University of Washington in Seattle, he became a longtime member of Jack DeJohnette’s Standard’s Trio and recorded 22 albums with pianist Keith Jarrett.

Peacock passed away in September of 2020 at the age of 85.

Here is a link to a 1993 performance of the Standards Trio in Tokyo with Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette and Gary Peacock:

"WITH A SONG IN MY HEART"