Horace Silver made his name working alongside Blakey, Rollins, and countless others. But later he would part ways with be-bop to explore the funkier aspects of jazz. His strong sense of groove and catchy soloing inspired a generation of new pianists starting with Ramsey Lewis, Joe Sample and Les McCann. Silver also penned a catalog of memorable compositions including “Song for My Father,” “Gregory is Here,” “Nutville,” “Nica’s Dream,” and “The Jody Grind.” Of these, many became jazz classics and some even enjoyed mainstream commercial success (and we all know Steely Dan borrowed one of his bass lines).
And then there’s “Peace.” This simple ten bar tune wanders through several keys tracking a melody as distinct as any in jazz. And it’s slow — a real toe-tapper at 48 bpm! The wide-open tempo allows Silver the opportunity to not only showcase his melodic improvizing abilities, but also his rhythmic prowess. You’ll notice throughout this solo, he’s always playing to the underlying pulse, typically subdivided as 32nd notes or 16th note triplets. Notating this was very challenging, especially in the first few measures where he lays back on the phrasing considerably. By the second chorus the rhythm section is swinging, which makes everything clearer. Also, note his use of Whole Tones on the descending changes (Cm7(b5) B7) — he does this every time.
Try playing along with the recording while learning this. It’s an excellent example of how to solo on a slow ballad.
Here’s a link to the full transcription PDF. And here’s the recording itself. His solo starts at 2:27. Note there’s a mistake on the chart above. In bar 9, the chord is a C7 not a C half-diminished 7.
Andrew,
This is so cool! I put up my (two) transcriptions on my website too. Hoping that will force me to keep doing more transcribing.
I just printed out Peace, thanks for posting!!
I’m loving the transcriptions, Andrew. Really nice stuff. And “We Three” is one of my favorite albums ever, especially Newborn’s playing on the slow blues, “After Hours”.
Thanks for posting!
Very beautiful, i love thi theme. On the bar 9 (and similar) thr right chord ise C(b5) (major, non minor) according to the exatonal scale used by Horace Silver
Thanks for the trascription
You’re absolutely correct. I need to fix that.
Thank you so much for this amazing transcription. It is helping me come up with ideas for my bass Jazz Recital at FIU in Miami, Fl.
-Jorge
Cool, glad to hear it. Good luck with the recital. If you put up a video of the concert, post a link to it here too!
This is excellent! Very generous of you to post it. Thanks!
You’re welcome!
Thanks for the great transcriptions!!!
Transcription to Peace by Horace Silver, very helpful. Thanks.
Glad you liked it!
that first measure is nuts