I'm the One | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | January 1972 | |||
Studio | RCA (New York City) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 36:24 | |||
Label | RCA | |||
Producer | Annette Peacock, Bob Ringe | |||
Annette Peacock chronology | ||||
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I'm the One is the debut solo album by Annette Peacock and was released by RCA in 1972. In 2010 Peacock remastered and reissued it on her label, ironic US, in a signed, collector's edition. [1] In 2012, the album was reissued again by the Future Days imprint of Light in the Attic Records. [2]
I'm the One fuses blues, jazz, avant-garde electronic music (including extensive treatment of her own voice through a Moog synthesizer) [3] and free form poetry and rap. It was recorded live and mostly in single takes. [4]
The coda of the David Bowie song "Something in the Air", from the album Hours , paid homage to "I'm the One", a song of which Bowie was fond. [5] [6] Pianist Mike Garson, who played keyboards on "I'm the One", and who also provided the piano solo on Bowie's song "Aladdin Sane", recalled: "no one would know he stole that from Annette, because you don't even know who Annette is. She was another... big influence." [7] (Peacock had turned down Bowie's request that she appear on the album Aladdin Sane . [8] ) Bowie sideman Mick Ronson incorporated "I'm the One" and Peacock's arrangement of "Love Me Tender" into his 1974 album Slaughter on 10th Avenue . [9]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [10] |
All About Jazz | [11] |
The Guardian | [3] |
PopMatters | [2] |
In an article for The Guardian , John Fordham called the album a "seismically influential session," and wrote: "for all the familiarity of computer-assisted vocals now, nothing prepares you for the howl of her searingly high notes spiralling up out of spooky organ chords and soul-brass riffs on the title track, or against the rolling blues groove of 'Pony', or the dark and prowling one of 'Blood'. Elvis's 'Love Me Tender' is the only cover, a blend of soft, lyrical intimacy and fierce exhortation. The underpinnings are as 1970s soul/blues-rooted as any classic-pop listener could wish, but the uncompromising, sound-manipulating focus still sounds contemporary. [3]
A reviewer for PopMatters commented: "I'm the One spotlights [Peacock's] abilities as a vocalist, composer, and innovator in a fashion that is seamless and still... breathtaking... who Peacock influenced and what they borrowed or stole doesn't matter when you're presented with the brilliance of this 37-minute opus, a record that wasn't as much ahead of its time as it was carving out its time, laying the groundwork for what was possible in a still-young decade and a year that still holds power over the heart and imagination of contemporary music." [2]
A reviewer for The Times remarked: "I'm the One... still sounds like the future 40 years on. In an age when it is standard for stars' voices to be digitally manipulated, these early excursions into electronics remain more bizarre than anything today." [12]
In a review for Perfect Sound Forever, Richard Mason wrote: "this is a remarkable recording, featuring song formats ranging from free jazz to soulful funk, but all with the unmistakeable Annette Peacock touch, music that invites you in, implores you to get involved, to think, to feel physically and cerebrally, to hear and listen actively." [13]
Stephen Judge, writing for Blurt , stated: "Forty years on, I'm the One shouldn't sound so unusual – the collision of singer/songwriter pop and electronic tomfoolery has become fairly common in the current millennium. But Peacock's avant jazz background and the spirit of doing something new suffuses I'm the One with enough joie de vivre to keep it sounding fresh even now." [14]
Martin Aston called the album "revelatory", and commented: "I'm The One remains a visionary slab of darkly intimate avant-funk electronic torch blues... Out there and yet equally soulful, I'm The One had no peers, save perhaps Tim Buckley if you combined his jazz odyssey Starsailor and his subsequent sex-funk riposte Greetings From LA." [9]
All tracks composed and arranged by Annette Peacock; except where indicated.
Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the mid-20th century. It deemphasizes melody and chord progressions and focuses on a strong rhythmic groove of a bassline played by an electric bassist and a drum part played by a percussionist, often at slower tempos than other popular music. Funk typically consists of a complex percussive groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves that create a "hypnotic" and "danceable" feel. It uses the same richly colored extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, and dominant seventh chords with altered ninths and thirteenths.
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Gary George Peacock 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. DeJohnette once stated that he admired Peacock's "sound, choice of notes, and, above all, the buoyancy of his playing." Marilyn Crispell called Peacock a "sensitive musician with a great harmonic sense."
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Paul Bley, CM was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live performance on the Moog and ARP synthesizers. His music has been described by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times as "deeply original and aesthetically aggressive". Bley's prolific output includes influential recordings from the 1950s through to his solo piano recordings of the 2000s.
Barry Altschul is a free jazz and hard bop drummer who first came to notice in the late 1960s for performing with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea.
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Glen Moore is an American jazz bassist, who occasionally performs on piano, flute and violin.
Slaughter on 10th Avenue is the debut album by English guitarist Mick Ronson, then-guitarist of David Bowie's backing band the Spiders from Mars. It was released in February 1974 by RCA Records.
Play Don't Worry is the second album by English guitarist and singer Mick Ronson, recorded in 1974 and released in January 1975 after his several projects in the early seventies together with David Bowie, Lou Reed and the band the Spiders from Mars. It contains mainly covers arranged by Ronson for his own sound, covering everyone from Pure Prairie League, The Velvet Underground and Little Richard. The backing track to "White Light/White Heat" was salvaged from Bowie's Pin Ups sessions. The title track was co-written by Bob Sargeant, later producer to The Beat amongst others, who released an album First Starring Role in April 1974 which included Ronson on recorder and producing four tracks.
Annette Peacock is an American composer, musician, songwriter, producer, and arranger. She is a pioneer in electronic music who combined her voice with one of the first Moog synthesizers in the late 1960s.
This article contains a comprehensive collection of information related to recordings by American pianist Mike Garson.
Michael David Garson is an American pianist, who has worked with David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, St. Vincent, Duran Duran, Free Flight, The Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur and The Pretty Reckless.
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The Paul Bley Synthesizer Show is an album by Paul Bley performing compositions by Annette Peacock which was released on the Milestone label in 1971.
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Improvisie is a live album by Paul Bley with Annette Peacock and Han Bennink which was released on the French America label in 1971.
Annette is an album by Paul Bley with Franz Koglmann and Gary Peacock recorded in Germany in 1992 and released on the hat ART label in 1993. The album features compositions by Annette Peacock.
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