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Interviews
My Conversation with Horace Silver
AAJ: Is laughter the best medicine?
HS: Laughter and music, both of them. They go hand in hand. They're both light hearted and they both can help you forget some of your problems sometimes, until you can find a solution to them. In the mean time, it can take some of the pressure off your butt.
AAJ: At this stage of your career, what is more important to you, your artistry as a pianist or your artistry as a composer/arranger?
HS: Well, both, I like both. If someone was to come to me and put a gun to my head and say, "Look, you've got to make a choice. Either you are going to go on with the piano or you are going to go on with the composing, because you can't do both." I would have to say composing, because there is no end of joy, well, I get joy out of playing the piano and playing for a live audience and getting their reaction, but there is nothing like the thrill that you get with it when you write a song. It's like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. There's nothing there. All of the sudden, you get one little gem of an idea and you keep working on it. You develop it and it develops into a beautiful melody, a beautiful harmony, a beautiful rhythm. And then you arrange it and you rehearse it and you record it. Boy, that is a thrill, Fred.
AAJ: Where do you see the future of this music?
HS: I see all of these elements will come into play in the future. I think if you look at music from way back, different elements kind of come together. It's like, well, for example, I don't know if it's a good analogy or not, but yesterday I went out and bought some vegetables. I bought something called broco-cauliflower. It's a hybrid between broccoli and cauliflower. It looks like a cauliflower, but it's green like broccoli. I think that's the way with music. All these different elements mix with each other and you get a hybrid. Eventually, somewhere down the line, it's going to be a hybrid of music with all these different influences coming together. Does that make sense, Fred? I hope.
AAJ: And the future for Horace Silver?
HS: I'm working on another album now. I haven't got in the studio, but I'm writing the music for one now, for next year's CD.
AAJ: Another quintet album?
HS: No, it's going to be something a little different.
AAJ: What is jazz to Horace Silver?
HS: It's my life, my love, my everything.
AAJ: Can you imagine doing anything else?
HS: Oh, no, no, Fred. Who would want to do anything else?
Photo Credit
John Ballon
