Peace (Horace Silver song)

"Peace"
Composition by Horace Silver from the album 'Blowin' the Blues Away'
Recorded August 29, 1959. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, U.S.
Genre Jazz, hardbop
Label Blue Note
Composer Horace Silver
Language English
Producer Alfred Lion

"Peace" is a composition by Horace Silver. The original version, by Silver's quintet, was recorded on August 29, 1959. It has become a jazz standard.[1][2] Silver also wrote lyrics for the tune.[3]

Composition

According to Silver, "I was doodlin' around on the piano, and it just came to me, but I also had the impression that there was an angel standing over me, impressing my mind with this beautiful melody and harmony."[4] Unusually for popular Silver compositions, "Peace" is a slow ballad.[3] It has a ten-bar structure.[2] Ted Gioia observed that "You won't find a single catchy melodic motif here, no surprising interlude, no harmonic shift that takes the piece in an unexpected direction. Instead the soloist cycles through a series of gentle resolving chords, mostly following a familiar ii-V formula, before settling unobtrusively into the tonic key of B flat."[2]

Original recording

The piece was first recorded on August 29, 1959, by the Horace Silver Quintet, of Silver (piano), Junior Cook (tenor saxophone), Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Gene Taylor (bass), and Louis Hayes (drums).[1][2] It was released as part of the Blue Note Records album Blowin' the Blues Away.[2]

Later versions

"Peace has regularly attracted younger musicians".[3] Silver recorded a version with vocals by Andy Bey on That Healin' Feelin' a decade after the original recording.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 Huey, Steve "Horace Silver / Horace Silver Quintet – Blowin' the Blues Away". AllMusic. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Gioia, Ted (2012). The Jazz Standards – A Guide to the Repertoire. Oxford University Press. pp. 331–332. ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.
  3. 1 2 3 Atkins, Ronald (June 19, 2014). "Horace Silver Obituary". The Guardian.
  4. Silver 2006, p. 166.
  5. Silver 2006, p. 191.
Bibliography
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