The story behind puzzle No. 44
Bill Evans · Everybody Digs Bill Evans · Riverside · 1958
Two chords, over and over, and one pianist drifting above them. Bill Evans made it up on the spot and never wanted to play it again.
Bill Evans recorded Peace Piece on December 15, 1958, at Reeves Sound in New York for Riverside. Most of the album, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, is a trio with Sam Jones on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, but Peace Piece is Evans alone.
It was an improvisation done at the end of the session. Evans built it on a gentle two-chord pattern, C major 7 to G9sus4, that he had used earlier that day in his version of Some Other Time.
Evans would not play Peace Piece in concert. He believed it would lose its meaning, because it had been an inspiration of that one moment.
The album cover carries praise from his peers. Miles Davis said Evans plays the piano the way it should be played. A few months later Davis hired him for Kind of Blue, and the Peace Piece chords found their way into Flamenco Sketches.
The left hand repeats the same figure the whole way through. Listen to the right hand wander farther from home as the piece goes on.
In the second half the harmonies grow more dissonant, then settle back toward calm.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Play Some Other Time from the same album to hear where the chords came from, then revisit Waltz for Debby (puzzle No. 23).
As an Amazon Associate, Liner Note earns from qualifying purchases.