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(s) | Horace Silver |
| Language | English |
| Producer(s) | 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] Versions by other artists include:
- Blue Mitchell on Smooth as the Wind (Riverside, 1961) and The Last Tango = Blues (Mainstream, 1973)
- Tommy Flanagan on Something Borrowed, Something Blue (Galaxy, 1978)
- Horace Parlan on The Maestro (SteepleChase, 1979)
- Chico Freeman on Spirit Sensitive (India Navigation, 1979)
- Billy Higgins on The Soldier (Timeless, 1981)
- Bobby McFerrin on Bobby McFerrin (Elektra/Nonesuch, 1982)
- Courtney Pine on Journey to the Urge Within (Verve, 1986)
- Shirley Scott on Skylark (Candid, 1991)
- Gary Thomas on Till We Have Faces (JMT, 1992)
- Norah Jones on First Sessions (Blue Note, 2001)
- Dave Palmer on Romance (Three Crows Music, 2006)
- Norah Jones on Day Breaks (Blue Note, 2016)
References
- 1 2 Huey, Steve "Horace Silver / Horace Silver Quintet – Blowin' the Blues Away". AllMusic. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
- 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.
- 1 2 3 Atkins, Ronald (June 19, 2014). "Horace Silver Obituary". The Guardian.
- ↑ Silver 2006, p. 166.
- ↑ Silver 2006, p. 191.
- Bibliography
- Silver, Horace (2006). Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25392-6.