Pieces of Peace
Pieces of Peace
(Cali-Tex/Quannum Projects)
This unearthed slab of lost Chicago Soul captures the incendiary, horn-heavy R&B funk act Pieces of Peace, which backed up Syl Johnson on stage and played sessions for a number of Windy City artists. The music is a loose and rambling amalgam of vocal and instrumental tracks — more attention is paid to groove and solos than to hooks and vocals — and at times borders on the avant-garde chaos of their Chi-town jazz brethren from the AACM. The seven Pieces of Peace exhibit their antiwar, pro-environment consciousness throughout — very much an aggregation of righteous brothers playing for all they're worth.
This article appears in Sep 10-16, 2008.