Pieces Of Peace - Pieces Of Peace (2007)

Artist: Pieces Of Peace
Title Of Album: Pieces Of Peace
Year Of Release: October 16, 2007
Label: Quannum Projects
Genre: Funk
Quality: MP3 / Joint Stereo
Bitrate: VBR kbit/s / 44.1 Khz
Total Time: 55:37 min
Total Size: 72,5 mb

TRACKLIST
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01 04:09 Cease Fire
02 07:37 Pollution
03 03:08 Flunky For Your Love
04 03:18 I Still Care
05 07:16 Peace and Blessings
06 10:51 Yesterdays Visions
07 07:44 Pollution-Instrumental
08 11:34 Yesterdays Visions-Instrumental Alt Take

Review
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Calling Pieces of Peace a footnote to history is both technically true and somewhat unfair. They had more than just obscurity going for them: As one of Chicago's premier soul and funk bands of the late 1960s and early 70s, they scored the enviable gig of backing up Syl Johnson during a number of his shows and, later, on his incendiary 1970 LP Is It Because I'm Black. But despite busting their chops performing around town and acting as a session group for a number of other Chicago artists, they never got around to releasing anything under their own name aside from a 1971 Twinight 45, Pass It On Pts. 1, which was recently reissued in an exact-duplicate vinyl-geek reproduction by Eccentric Sou curiosity purveyors Numero Group. The group eventually disintegrated during a tour of Southeast Asia, mostly due to homesickness and pressure over managerial disputes, and subsequently the one album they had waiting in the wings got relegated to the back burner and eventually lost.

Lost, at least, until Quannum unearthed the tapes for the sessions-- an undertaking assisted, naturally, by that eternal cratedigger DJ Shadow-- and reassembled them into the self-titled LP that Scarab Records originally intended to release in the early 70s. Unsurprisingly, it sounds like the driving, horn-driven jazz-funk ofPass It On taken to its logical conclusion, but there was another hint as to how this album might've sounded: not from their work with Syl Johnson, which leaned more towards traditional soul, but from the fact that many of the members of Pieces of Peace (including keyboardist Benjamin Wright and trumpet player Michael Davis from this album's lineup, as well as former drummer Fred Crutchfield) later went on to play with fellow Chicago natives Earth, Wind & Fire. Granted, Wright and Davis were part of EW&F's circa-1979 disco-jazz I Am incarnation, which didn't exactly have the same sound as the group that played Melvin Van Peebles' arrangements for Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song eight years previous, but backtracking to that era puts Pieces of Peace squarely in the same soul-jazz/heavy funk neighborhood as that more famous group's early 70s work.

Review continues at:
pieces-of-peace --- Pitchfork, Nate Patrin, October 09, 2007

Product Description
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DJ Shadow has found another lost funk/soul classic from Chicago in the early 70s. Never released!
Pieces of Peace backed or played with a who's who of r&b artists in their day, both live & in the studio: Gene Chandler, Syl Johnson, Donny Hathaway, Jackie Wilson, Major Lance, Eugene Record of The Chi-lites, the Pharoahs and more.
Maybe you've heard the smash r&B instrumental Soulful Strut --that's them playing on the track credited to Young-Holt Unlimited.
Later three members joined Earth Wind & Fire, one arranged strings for Michael Jackson's Off The Wall and another played with Phil Collins for 10 years. Finally, this never-before-released classic from Chicago's answer to Detroit's famous Funk Brothers (THE Motown backing band) sees the light of day. A must have for funk/soul afficianados!