The Jazz Standard was packed to see Charlie Peacock leading a group with Marc Ribot (guitar), Jeff Coffin (tenor sax, flute), Felix Pastorius (electric bass), Maurice Brown (trumpet) and Matt Wilson (drums) in support of his most recent CD, Love Press Ex-Curio.
The second set opened with a lively take on the rock-inflected "Bucket a Chicken , taken from the album. In contrast to the recorded version, Maurice Brown dominated the song, using an octave pedal to enhance the sound of his horn. Ribot's guitar was at times filled with special effects as well, but he played clean licks when it came his turn to solo. Towards the end of the song, Jeff Coffin boosted his saxophone with a wah-wah pedal, a rare sight.
The following tune, the yet-to-be-released "Automac , was a bit more adventurous, with less guitar and drums in lieu of a duel between sax and trumpet, with occasional fill-ins by Peacock on his electric piano and a subtle but effective bass line.
The band left Peacock alone on stage to perform a masterful solo rendition of Thelonious Monk's "Let's Cool One . About seven or eight minutes later, the musicians returned as the song morphed into Bob Dylan's "Masters of War , which featured a twisted guitar solo.

The set closed with yet another tune from the current album, "Super Jet Service , played at a much faster tempo than on disc and featuring a nice finale in which Brown and Pastorius traded riffs.

An observation taken from the live set is that Peacock seems to give his fellow players much more space to do their thing than in the studio - in fact, one feels that the pianist seems to enjoy being more in the background on stage. "Super Jet Service is evidence of that, as his piano is much more present on record than live. At Jazz Standard, Jeff Coffin practically stole the show, while he tended not to do so on the recorded version.

Love Press Ex-Curio is a surprising album, which grows on you after repeated hearings though these surprises tend to diminish with each listen.

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