A strong duo set by double bassist Gary Peacock and pianist Marilyn Crispell for
ECM! While Peacock and Crispell have a bit of a history playing together, Azure is the first time they've recorded in the studio as a duo. It seems like that should happened already, but better late than never – Azure's gotta be one of our favorite
ECM albums of the preceding couple of years! It has 11 tracks – 4 with a compositional credit to Crispell, 4 to Peacock, and 3 together – and they're so intuitive, it's not easy to guess who penned which ones. Crispell's numbers have melodic, even pretty piano at the core, but their spaciousness allows enough room for Peacock to make it his own, while Peacock's pieces are often pretty enough that you'd be forgiven to think the piano player penned them. Their joint tracks have a looser, slightly more improvisational feel. Those are great, too! Titles include "Patterns", "Goodbye", Puppets", "Blue", "The Lea", "Waltz After David M", "Leapfrog", "Azure" and more.