Gary Peacock, who performed alongside Albert Ayler, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, Tony Williams and many others, died on September 4 at the age of 85. Peacock was born in Burley, Idaho on May 12, 1935, and grew up in Yakima, Washington. By high school he was playing trumpet, piano and drums, and after graduation attended the Westlake College of Music in Los Angeles before being drafted into the Army. While stationed in Germany he played drums in a jazz trio, but was convinced to switch to bass after the group’s bassist left.
Peacock later moved to LA, eventually playing with jazz figureheads like Barney Kessel, Art Pepper and Bud Shank, before relocating to New York in the Sixties. He had a long partnership with Canadian free jazz pianist Paul Bley. He also briefly joined Miles Davis’s quintet and played with Bill Evans.