What’s remarkable about Amaryllis is the dreamy, atmospheric feeling that seems to characterise the contents, whoever they are credited to. There are twelve pieces overall: four credited to Motian, three to Peacock, the final piece, ‘Prayer’, written by Mitchell Weiss, and the remaining four by Crispell. But as Crispell’s sleeve note reveals, four of these tunes were not composed in the conventional sense but improvised in response to producer Manfred Eicher’s suggestion that they play some slow, “free” pieces. These songs – which include the title track, ‘Voices’, ‘M.E.’ (named by Motian for Eicher), and ‘Avatar’ (the name of the New York studio they recorded in) – serve to define the often beautiful and stately feel of the album. This is also heard to great effect in Crispell’s ’Silence’, which opens Side 2, and the closing ‘Prayer’.

Other tunes, such as Crispell’s ‘Rounds’, Peacock’s ‘Requiem’ and Motian’s ‘Conception Vessel’, are relative ’standards’ from their respective careers, and there’s plenty of Crispell’s bravura ninety-notes-a-minute pianism if you need it. This reissue, the first ever release for the title on vinyl, can’t help but focus attention on what incomparable musicians both Peacock, who died in 2020, and Motian, who died in 2011, were, separately and together.

from https://ukjazznews.com