By Jason West
Having played with trio mates Chuck Deardorf (acoustic bass) and Dean Hodges (drums) for the last two decades, Seattle pianist Dave Peck has developed a sense of intimacy and musicianship that only comes with time. Jazz cats call it payinÃÂ dues, and Dave has certainly paid his share. This includes his ongoing struggle with chronic fatigue syndrome, a condition he shares with fellow jazz pianist Keith Jarrett.
Diagnosed with CFS in 1995, for that entire year Peck was sleeping 20 hours a day with barely enough energy to feed himself. Granted medical leave from his teaching job at SeattleÃÂs Cornish College of the Arts, Dave rarely left his bed, let alone his house. At the age of 41 his survival became solely dependent on the care of close friends, not to mention his ÃÂindispensableÃÂ best friend and wife of the last 22 years, Jane Peck.
Then, in 1996 Peck began to get the upper hand on chronic fatigue. More to the point, he began to deal with his debilitating condition, a condition that continues to reappear every few weeks out of various stages of remission. Forced to make decisions about what he could and could not do, Peck discovered whatÃÂs important and what he could let go. He became aware of ÃÂenergy conservation modesÃÂ and how to provoke or postpone outbreaks of CFS. ÃÂSo,ÃÂ Peck recalls, ÃÂas I learned more and made better decisions I started gradually getting back into working very slowly at Cornish, and slowly got back into playing.ÃÂ
The result is great jazz. Trio was released in 1998, followed by Solo in 1999. Both recordings, produced by PeckÃÂs LetÃÂs Play Stella label, were welcomed with critical acclaim. Presently, DaveÃÂs latest trio CD entitled, 3 and 1, has climbed to No. 40 on the Gavin Mainstream Jazz charts only three weeks after its debut.
Certainly the future looks bright for Dave Peck as one can surmise from our conversation taped earlier this summer at PeckÃÂs North Seattle residence.
All About Jazz: Let me ask you about the guys in the trio. YouÃÂve worked with Chuck Deardorf and Dean Hodges for along time. I imagine youÃÂve developed a close relationship. Talk about that.
Dave Peck: IÃÂve been playing with Hodges it just seems like all my life. Almost all the gigs IÃÂve ever done, DeanÃÂs been on the drums, regardless of the situation. There have been some other people that IÃÂve played with here and there, but DeanÃÂs always been there. And heÃÂs such a beautiful drummer and beautiful person. HeÃÂs just so easy to get along with both personally and musically. HeÃÂs perfect all the time. And Chuck, when I first got to know Chuck he had just started playing bass, and he was playing mostly electric. Then he started playing acoustic bass and he very quickly became the first call acoustic bass player in town. HeÃÂs always working. Everybody wants Chuck for their gigs; heÃÂs just so solid. So, me too.
AAJ: On the recording, did you prompt them much? I mean, did you ever say, ÃÂOkay, hereÃÂs what I want you to do here.ÃÂ
DP: No, IÃÂve never been that way with them. You know, once you get to a certain point of musicianship what you do is you hire the guys who play like you want. And if they donÃÂt play like you want, you get somebody who does. So I donÃÂt tell ÃÂem much of anything. I might have some kind of idea how IÃÂd like to do a certain tune, but itÃÂs a really vague idea with very little direction of any sort. And we approached the recording pretty much the same way we approach the gigs. IÃÂll just have a list of tunes, and I might have some loose idea about what the chord progression might start out as, but itÃÂs usually quite loose so that the actual way that we end up playing a tune on a recording, weÃÂll probably never play it that way again. A lot of times IÃÂll do a really long introduction, there arenÃÂt so many of them in this record, but when I start something itÃÂs just a free composition for me, I donÃÂt even know what tune IÃÂm about to play, so IÃÂll start playing piano by myself and something in what IÃÂm doing starts to remind me of a tune and at some point IÃÂll look over at Chuck to see if heÃÂs also heard the thing I heard. Maybe IÃÂll have to tell him the name of it, if I remember it. ItÃÂs funny, but thereÃÂll be times when IÃÂm playing a little part of a melody and he doesnÃÂt know what it is and IÃÂm about to tell him and IÃÂll realize I donÃÂt know the name of this tune. (Laughter) ÃÂYou know, itÃÂs this one.ÃÂ
AAJ: IÃÂve noticed on your previous recordings that youÃÂve included a number of obscure standards, and I wanted to ask: How do you decide what tunes to play?
DP: Well, IÃÂm always looking for tunes, and then IÃÂll usually try to decide if I have some relationship with a tune, so the obscure ones are usually ones that I sort of found and I really like them. They have some sort of meaning to me and IÃÂve found interesting things to do with them. They usually have some kind of interesting thing about them thatÃÂs different from your average 16-bar or 32-bar head.
AAJ: Talk about ÃÂAna LuizaÃÂ the rarely recorded Jobim tune thatÃÂs on the CD.
DP: ÃÂAna LuizaÃÂ is a really pretty tune that I just started messing with before we made the recording. The guys are just kind of reading through that; weÃÂd never played it before. I had been working on it a little bit, moving it into different keys, trying to find a good place for it on the piano because, you know, itÃÂs a guitar tune in JobimÃÂs key. He sings way down here so itÃÂs not a real good piano place, so I moved it around a bit, which is kind of bizarre because it doesnÃÂt really have a key. The way I do it it starts in Aflat and ends in Bflat and goes a lot of places in between, so itÃÂs kind of hard to tell where to put it. But I really like it; itÃÂs a really nice tune. We do a real simple version of it because it pretty much stands on itÃÂs own.
AAJ: You mentioned that one of your big influences was Miles Davis, and his piano players. Is Jobim in there, too?
DP: Sure. Yeah, I did spend a lot of time studying and learning all the Jobim tunes I could get me hands on when I was a kid. I really really liked the beautiful structure of his melodies and harmonies, and wonderful phrasing. He was a big influence. I love the long forms of his tunes; they kind of move harmonically and melodically and very efficiently. Nice stuff. Jobim is about the extent though of my Latin music learning. ThereÃÂs so much of the rhythmic stuff that I just never really got into very much.
AAJ: You mentioned to me earlier that you feel your playing has improved. What do you like about what youÃÂre doing now that gives you that indication?
DP: Well, a couple of things, I think itÃÂs just stronger. There for a long time I didnÃÂt have a whole lot of energy and I felt weak playing. So as I start to feel better and get better at managing the chronic fatigue, IÃÂm stronger, which means I can practice more. As IÃÂm stronger, I have more things under my fingers, just more things that IÃÂve learned. IÃÂm able to pay more attention to the music thatÃÂs going on around me, to what the other guys are playing. I don't listen to myself that much anymore when I play and I feel strong enough that I can just react to anything, you know, I donÃÂt have to be pushing it or working terribly hard or paying attention to what my own hands are doing. I just know that thatÃÂs going to work out. So thatÃÂs part of it: I listen better. And as IÃÂm stronger my time is better. ThatÃÂs a thing that sort of falls apart when youÃÂre struggling, notes donÃÂt come down when you expect them to, they just sort of flop around. So thatÃÂs pretty much it. I can take bigger risks now without feeling out of control.
AAJ: I know that Keith Jarrett had chronic fatigue, and is probably still dealing with it, but how did that effect you to know he had it?
DP: ThatÃÂs the one thing that Keith Jarrett copied from me. I probably copied an awful lot Keith Jarrett in my day. But I did get the chronic fatigue first. I was really moved be reading what he had to say about it because thatÃÂs how I felt and reading about how heÃÂs dealing with it was very moving to me. IÃÂm very very sorrow that this has happened to him because itÃÂs not much fun. I think heÃÂll be better for it. I feel like IÃÂm better for it. ItÃÂs not the best way to get better or be better, but I am a better person for it. I have much more respect for other people and how people help each other out. And that people need friends and they need help getting through their lives. And that people are like that, especially for me. IÃÂve always been kind of a scary, gruff sort of character. People tell me that IÃÂm intimidating, so to have so many friends be just so darn good, it really kind of made me take another look.
