Lemonade

Charlie Peacock is Christian music’s most enduring Renaissance man. Over his 30-year career, he’s released singer/songwriter albums, launched record labels, and produced artists as different as Amy Grant and The Civil Wars. Lemonade marks his first foray into jazz since his 2008 duet project with sax player Jeff Cotton. This time out, he goes it alone with an album’s worth of solo piano improvisations that bring to mind the explorations of Vince Guaraldi and Bill Evans. Those unfamiliar with Peacock’s fluency on the keyboard may be surprised at the confidence of his playing here. Pieces like “Viola in the Garden of Words,” “A Boy and His Dreams,” and “Homeless in the Cosmos” are built with subtle tonal shadings upon melodic themes that speak to Peacock’s skills as a tunesmith. The bittersweet “Redbones in the Shadows” blends gospel and Celtic motifs, while “Blues in the Middle” marries Manhattan sophistication with southside Chicago soul. Peacock stretches out the furthest on “Jude, as in Hey Jude,” a dreamy, tingling piece that combines abstraction with whimsy. This is as pure a creative expression as Peacock has ever recorded.