Pieces of Peace

The Pieces of Peace were a band that arose from the primordial stew of 1960s Chicago to become the band behind the Windy City soul sound. Their one LP laid to tape is arguably the most important lost document of Chicago soul music.

The group's evolution began in the early 1960s, when Bernard Reed started a vocal group called the Constellations. At the time, Bernard's older brother Danny Reed was getting his start with local uber-producer Carl Davis, working behind the Artistics and Major Lance. The Reed boys both came to be involved with Carl Davis' new venture, JaLynne Productions, after Davis dissolved his relationship with Okeh in 1965. Among the players involved, Davis brought Eugene Record (of the Chi-Lites), Bernard enlisted his Constellations drummer Quinton Joseph, and Barbara Acklin collaborated on songwriting. When Jackie Wilson showed up at JaLynne looking for a hit to revive his faltering career, he chose the Acklin/Record penned "Whispers," and this aligned the crew with Brunswick Records.

Trumpeter Michael Davis was gigging with a group called the Gents in 1967 when he met alto player Jerry Wilson, recently in town from Greenville, Mississippi. Michael Davis had been working with Brunswick arranger Willie Henderson, and through Henderson, he and Wilson connected with the JaLynne crew. The JaLynne woodshed then had at its core the Reed brothers, Joseph, Davis, and Wilson. They cut the legendary "Soulful Strut," and Carl Davis became interested in capitalizing on the major talent at his fingertips and made plans to launch the JaLynne Sound as both recording artists and a touring band. They were part of the Soul Spectacular Tour, a massive touring revue of Brunswick and Carl Davis' biggest hit makers, but their only record was released on Brunswick subsidiary Dakar and failed to make any significant impact.

JaLynne Sound spent 1968 touring heavily, rehearsing and recording. They met drummer Harold "Heavy" Nesbitt while on the road and returned to Chicago with him in tow. Although Quinton Joseph remained a session player, he was out of the group otherwise. Danny Reed left on his own, uncomfortable with the tightening grip of Carl Davis, and guitarist John Bishop, who had played with Bernard and Quinton, joined the fold.

Significant changes in 1968 would lead the group in their destined direction. First, they came to be Gene Chandler's backing band after he bailed them out while stranded in New York following a tour that didn’t afford a return trip. The group changed their name to Pieces of Peace, broke ties with Carl Davis and went over to Twinight Records, which had been flourishing with the productions of Syl Johnson. In 1969, the outfit would back Syl Johnson on the inimitable "Is It Because I'm Black." Issued as Johnson’s second Twinight LP, the Pieces co-produced the entire Is It Because I’m Black album. They also played on and co-produced singles by the likes of Annette Poindexter, Elvin Spencer, Josephine Taylor, and the Dynamic Tints.

In the early 1970s Heavy returned home to Nashville and Fred White (of the Tea Boxes) came to replace him, and helped create a bouncing funk rhythm that would define their sound moving forward. Vocalist King Johnson came on board, and with this line-up, the ensemble recorded their only release under the Pieces of Peace moniker in 1971, the deep funk workout "Pass It On Pt. 1 & 2."

Jerry Wilson had been advocating for the addition of keyboards to their live engagements, and brought hometown friend Benjamin Wright on board. The group continued to be ace players for Syl Johnson, utilizing Wrights keys on local hits like "Annie Got Hot Pants Power," but they were growing tighter with another group of living legends: The Pharaohs, led by Willie Woods, who went to high school with Michael Davis. The Pharaohs' amalgamation of jazz, soul, funk, and African rhythms was inspirational to the Pieces of Peace, and they soon found themselves in a relationship with the older band that both sides have described as protege to mentor. The Pharaohs ran their own independent Scarab imprint and Pieces of Peace would have a chance to commit to tape a set of originals that had been in their live repertoire for years.

Before the recording sessions that would become the only Pieces of Peace LP could commence, there was a final personnel change. Drummer Fred White was hired away by Donny Hathaway, and he recruited high school-aged prodigy Fred Crutchfield to be his replacement. As the youngest member of the crew, Crutchfield's energy proved to be an asset on this, the one and only Pieces of Peace album, but his inexperience proved to be a major detractor in the band’s final chapter. The compositions were a group effort, and only benefited from the involvement of the Pharaohs, who lent the talents of Derf Reklaw, Aaron Dodd, and Willie Woods to the recordings and production. While the recordings were being finalized, an offer from nearly a year before to tour Southeast Asia was made good on.

While highly successful in many regards, the 6-month tour also came to be the band's demise. Between the loss of a drummer, stresses along the way with agents and acute homesickness, the group broke up in Singapore and returned to Chicago a dissolved unit. And with this most unfortunate resolution, the miraculous Scarab LP that they had recorded prior to their departure was shelved indefinitely.

In the aftermath, Bernard Reed and John Bishop went back to Brunswick, and back to gigging with the likes of Syl Johnson and the Chi-Lites. Jerry Wilson and King Johnson also stayed in Chicago, since they were able to write their own ticket after being in the Pieces of Peace. Benjamin Wright moved to California, where he worked closely with the recently relocated Earth, Wind, & Fire, and later found great success arranging the strings for Michael Jackson's monstrous Off the Wall album. Michael Davis changed his name to Rahm Lee and joined the Earth, Wind, & Fire horn section, and later went on to play with Phil Collins for ten years and record five solo jazz albums. Fred White, after his spell with Donny Hathaway, naturally went on to play with Earth, Wind, & Fire as well. John Bishop, Jerry Wilson, and Harold "Heavy" Nesbitt have, sadly, since passed on.

While they were arguably the most important group in Chicago in their prime, they almost managed to disappear without any trace at all, save for their criminally scarce single and a few errant mentions in the limited histories available of the Chicago soul sound. With this LP release, the Pieces of Peace begin to get their just due, not just as able session musicians, but also as a unique and creative band with progression as their focus. A group that synthesized all aspects of Black music in the Windy City and forged their own spiritual funk sound, the Pieces of Peace have finally been put back together.

The Pieces of Peace album (self-titled) is being released on Quannum Projects/ Cali-Tex in the fall 2007.