Peace Piece

Last updated

"Peace Piece" is a jazz piece recorded by Bill Evans in December 1958 for his album Everybody Digs Bill Evans . It is a pastoral improvisation done at the end of the recording session and is one of his simplest, built on a gentle Cmaj7 to G9sus4 two-chord progression that Evans had used earlier during the session for his version of "Some Other Time" from Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town . It also reappeared in the opening to "Flamenco Sketches", which Evans recorded with Miles Davis the following year on the album Kind of Blue ; Davis had taken a liking to the piece and wanted to reuse it. [1] [2]

Contents

Although a peaceful piece, it contains many discordant notes in the latter half. The composition, with its free-form peaceful melody and timeless, meditational quality, has featured in numerous soundtracks of films and music in ballet choreography and has been recorded by fellow jazz musicians. It can be heard in Bo Widerberg's Love 65 (1965), Gaurav Seth's A Passage to Ottawa, Philip Seymour Hoffman's Jack Goes Boating (2010), and Dan Gilroy's Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017). [3] Pianists Richie Beirach, [4] Ricardo Fioravanti, Liz Story [5] and Stefano Battaglia, [6] the guitarists Stephen D. Anderson and Nino Josele, flautist Herbie Mann, and classical pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, [7] Roy Eaton, and Igor Levit have all recorded Peace Piece. The Kronos Quartet also recorded Peace Piece as a string quartet on the album Music of Bill Evans . [3]

Evans evokes the feeling of being alone in the piece and recalled that a teenage fan said that when he first heard it he "felt like he was standing all alone in New York". [3] Evans had many requests to play the piece live in his last years, but he refused because he believed that the composition would lose its value and meaning, as it had been an inspiration at the moment only. He only ever played it once live with the Bill Evans Dance Company in Seattle in 1978 to accompany an abstract and lyrical modern dance put on by the dancers.

Chuck Israels, later a bassist of the Bill Evans Trio, wrote of Peace Piece on his website: [3]

Peace Piece is an example of the depth of Evans' compositional technique. It is an ostinato piece, composed and recorded long before the more recent superficial synthesis of Indian and American music; in fact, it owes more to Satie and Debussy than to Ravi Shankar. The improvisation starts simply over a gentle ostinato, which quickly fades into the background. Evans allows the fantasy that evolves from the opening motive (an inversion of the descending fifth in the ostinato) more freedom than he would in an improvisation tied to a changing accompaniment. He takes advantage of the ostinato as a unifying element against which ideas flower, growing more lush and colorful as the piece unfolds. Polytonalities and cross rhythms increase in density as the ostinato undulates gently, providing a central rhythmic and tonal reference. The improvisation becomes increasingly complex against the unrelenting simplicity of the accompaniment, until, near the end, Evans gradually reconciles the two elements."

Jacques Réda, a poet and jazz critic, has written a poem in French about Peace Piece.

Peace Piece bears some resemblance to Frédéric Chopin's Berceuse in Db major; [8] both pieces use a two-chord left-hand ostinato throughout, and they both have an ornamented melody line.

American jazz musician and YouTuber Charles Cornell notes that Bill Evans may have been influenced by Erik Satie's Vexations. [9]

The piece has been used in several films, including Corrina, Corrina in 1994 (performed by John Beasley), Peace Is Every Step in 1997 (Bill Evans version), Jack Goes Boating in 2010 (Bill Evans version), and Roman J. Israel, Esq. in 2017. Niemand in de stad (film) in 2018.

In 2003, text art collective Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries used "Peace Piece" in 0PERATI0N NUK0REA, a fictional story about the nuclear destruction of Seoul in a future war between South and North Korea.

Covers

The track 'Fix It' by Lady Blackbird from the 2021 album 'Black Acid Soul' uses Peace Piece as its musical base.

Related Research Articles

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues, ragtime, European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation.

Modal jazz is jazz that makes use of musical modes, often modulating among them to accompany the chords instead of relying on one tonal center used across the piece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Evans</span> American jazz pianist (1929–1980)

William John Evans was an American jazz pianist and composer who worked primarily as the leader of his trio. His use of impressionist harmony, block chords, innovative chord voicings, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines continue to influence jazz pianists today.

A riff is either a repeated chord progression or a refrain in music ; it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or a solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompaniment of a musical composition. Though riffs are most often found in rock music, heavy metal music, Latin, funk, and jazz, classical music is also sometimes based on a riff, such as Ravel's Boléro. Riffs can be as simple as a tenor saxophone honking a simple, catchy rhythmic figure, or as complex as the riff-based variations in the head arrangements played by the Count Basie Orchestra.

In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces include classical compositions such as Ravel's Boléro and the Carol of the Bells, and popular songs such as Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder's "I Feel Love" (1977), Henry Mancini's theme from Peter Gunn (1959), The Who's "Baba O'Riley" (1971), The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" (1997), and Flo Rida's "Low" (2007).

<i>Kind of Blue</i> 1959 studio album by Miles Davis

Kind of Blue is a studio album by the American jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis. It was released on August 17, 1959 through Columbia Records. For the recording, Davis led a sextet featuring saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, pianist Bill Evans, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Jimmy Cobb, with new band pianist Wynton Kelly appearing on one track – "Freddie Freeloader" – in place of Evans. The recording took place on March 2 and April 22, 1959 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Lewis (pianist)</span> American jazz pianist, composer and arranger

John Aaron Lewis was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger, best known as the founder and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

A variety of musical terms are encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from the original or current Italian meanings. Most of the other terms are taken from French and German, indicated by Fr. and Ger., respectively.

Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. It is just over half an hour long.

<i>Porgy and Bess</i> (Miles Davis album) 1959 studio album by Miles Davis

Porgy and Bess is a studio album by the jazz musician Miles Davis, released in March 1959 on Columbia Records. The album features arrangements by Davis and collaborator Gil Evans from George Gershwin's 1935 opera of the same name. The album was recorded in four sessions on July 22, July 29, August 4, and August 18, 1958, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City. It is the second collaboration between Davis and Evans and has garnered much critical acclaim since its release, being acknowledged by some music critics as the best of their collaborations. Jazz critics have regarded the album as historically important.

<i>A Rainbow in Curved Air</i> 1969 studio album by Terry Riley

A Rainbow in Curved Air is the third album by American composer Terry Riley, released in 1969 on CBS Records. The title track consists of Riley's overdubbed improvisations on several keyboard and percussion instruments, including electric organ, electric harpsichord, dumbec, and tambourine. The B-side "Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band" is a saxophone-based drone piece featuring tape loops and edits, drawing on Riley's all-night improvisatory performances in the 1960s.

<i>Cadence</i> (magazine) American music magazine

Cadence: The Independent Journal of Creative Improvised Music is a quarterly review of jazz, blues and improvised music. The magazine covers a range of styles, from early jazz and blues to the avant-garde. Critic and historian Bob Rusch founded the magazine as a monthly in 1976 and served as publisher and coordinating editor through 2011. Musician David Haney became editor and publisher in 2012.

<i>Everybody Digs Bill Evans</i> 1959 studio album by Bill Evans

Everybody Digs Bill Evans is a trio and solo album by jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was released in early 1959 on the Riverside Records label.

"Song for My Father" is a composition by Horace Silver. The original version, on the album of the same title by Silver's quintet, was recorded on October 26, 1964. It has become a jazz standard and is probably Silver's best-known composition. According to Silver, the song was "in part inspired by our Brazilian trip. We got the Brazilian rhythm for this tune from that trip, and the melodic line was inspired by some very old Cape Verdean Portuguese folk music."

Visions fugitives, Op. 22, is a cycle of twenty piano miniatures by Sergei Prokofiev. The seventh piece was also published for harp. They were written between 1915 and 1917, individually, many for specific friends of the composer, and premiered by him as a cycle lasting some twenty minutes on April 15, 1918, in Petrograd. Gutheil published both the piano set and the one piece for harp in 1917 in Moscow.

<i>1958 Miles</i> 1974 compilation album by Miles Davis

1958 Miles is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released in 1974 on CBS/Sony. Recording sessions for tracks that appear on the album took place on May 26, 1958, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio and September 9, 1958, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. 1958 Miles consists of three songs featured on side two of the LP album Jazz Track, which was released in November 1959, one song from the same session not appearing in the album, and three recordings from Davis' live performance at the Plaza Hotel with his ensemble sextet. The recording date at 30th Street Studio served as the first documented session to feature pianist Bill Evans performing in Davis' group.

"Cherokee" (also known as "Cherokee (Indian Love Song)") is a jazz standard written by the British composer and band leader Ray Noble and published in 1938. It is the first of five movements in Noble's "Indian Suite" (Cherokee, Comanche War Dance, Iroquois, Seminole, and Sioux Sue).

<i>Ten Freedom Summers</i> 2012 live album and box set by Wadada Leo Smith

Ten Freedom Summers is a four-disc box set by American trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith. It was released on May 5, 2012, by Cuneiform Records. Smith wrote its compositions intermittently over the course of 34 years, beginning in 1977, before performing them live in November 2011 at the Colburn School's Zipper Hall in Los Angeles. He was accompanied by the nine-piece Southwest Chamber Music ensemble and his own jazz quartet, featuring drummers Pheeroan akLaff and Susie Ibarra, pianist Anthony Davis, and bassist John Lindberg.

<i>Sonic Explorations</i> 1988 studio album by Matthew Shipp & Rob Brown

Sonic Explorations is the debut album by American jazz pianist Matthew Shipp and alto saxophonist Rob Brown, originally issued on LP in 1988 on Cadence Jazz.

<i>Live in Tokyo</i> (Charles Tolliver album) Live album by Charles Tolliver

Live in Tokyo is a live album by the American jazz trumpeter-composer Charles Tolliver and his quartet Music Inc. Their fifth album overall, it was recorded on December 7, 1973, at Yubinchokin Hall in Tokyo during Tolliver and Music Inc.'s first tour of Japan. The quartet – featuring the pianist Stanley Cowell, the bassist Clint Houston, and Clifford Barbaro on drums – played the show in mostly fast tempo and performed three of Tolliver's original compositions, along with a ballad composed by Cowell and the Thelonious Monk standard "'Round Midnight".

References

  1. ↑ Price, Emmett George (2010). Encyclopedia of African American music. ABC-CLIO. p. 458. ISBN   978-0-313-34199-1 . Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  2. ↑ Jazz journal international. Billboard Ltd. 2008. p. 14. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Peace Piece, BillEvans.nl
  4. ↑ Rusch, Bob (1 January 1993). Cadence. B. Rusch. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  5. ↑ Jazz times. Jazztimes. 1982. p. 194. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Cadence. B. Rusch. 1995. p. 84. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  7. ↑ The Advocate. 1997. p. 72. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
  8. ↑ Mawer, Deborah (2014). French Music and Jazz in Conversation. p. 231. ISBN   9781107037533 . Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  9. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hodDvJa9LF4&ab_channel=CharlesCornell
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.