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Horace Silver: Finger Poppin
by Rex Butters
Horace Silver’s trademark features--often sunny compositions and treacherous, tight arrangements as well as his preferred quintet format and enthusiastic embrace of bop, Latin, blues, and folk melodies--mark him as a mid-century creative wellspring that continues to inform jazz. Along with Art Blakey, Silver helped create what became known as the Blue Note sound. Swing era listeners intimidated by the “Chinese music” of bop found plenty to love in Silver’s inclusive synthesis. Only Lee Morgan compares as a composer of catchy, ...
Continue ReadingHorace Silver: Paris Blues: Olympia Theater, Paris, 1962
by C. Michael Bailey
This is the classic Horace Silver Quintet. It existed and recorded here while Miles was between his two great quintets, just before Art Blakey recorded Caravan with Curtis Fuller and Wayne Shorter, and while John Coltrane was assembling his classic quartet. This concert takes place almost half way between Finger Poppin' With the Horace Silver Quintet and Song for My Father. In essence, this is hard bop reaching perfection, neither al dente nor over-cooked. All of the songs are lengthy ...
Continue ReadingHorace Silver: Jazz Has A Sense Of Humor
by John Sharpe
Listening to any new release by Horace Silver is a lot like hearing your favourite comedian tell a joke for the umpteenth time—you know the punch line, but you laugh anyway! Since he left Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers in 1956, Silver has written and produced a number of classic tunes that have become jazz standards. Over the years his famous quintets have always featured dynamite trumpet/tenor tandems—Blue Mitchell /Junior Cook, Woody Shaw/Joe Henderson and the Brecker Brothers—and this album is ...
Continue ReadingMiles Davis: Walkin'
by Douglas Payne
This bop-era classic finds trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-91) leading two groups from two sessions in April 1954: a superb sextet and a compelling quintet. Both groups center on a blue-chip rhythm section consisting of pianist Horace Silver, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Kenny Clarke. But despite the rock solid foundation and substantial decoration these three provide, Walkin' is all about the horn players. Trombonist J.J. Johnson and tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson (returning to music after the first of ...
Continue ReadingHorace Silver: Retrospective
by C. Andrew Hovan
We really don't have many living jazz legends walking around these days, but fortunately we're lucky enough to still have Horace Silver going strong (just check out his new release, Jazz Has a Sense of Humor, if you need proof) and maintaining the jazz tradition that he's so intimately tied to. Over the course of 26 years, Silver recorded extensively for Blue Note and during the label's 60th anniversary year it would appear logical that he would receive the “boxed ...
Continue ReadingHorace Silver: Retrospective
by Douglas Payne
The hugeness of Horace Silver's musical legacy remains unforgivably unavailable. Blue Note Records, to which the pianist and composer gave outlet to his vast and historically significant discography over a full quarter century, is easily to blame for such inexcusable oversight. This four-disc collection, however, attempts to amass Silver's significance in one fell swoop. Designed as it is for deep pockets, it's a bit too much. Still, Silver deserves far more. Retrospective spans the amazing period of time ...
Continue ReadingHorace Silver: A Prescription For The Blues
by Douglas Payne
With A Prescription For The Blues, 69-year-old pianist Horace Silver proves he's writing and playing as well as -- if not better than -- he did over four decades ago. But mere stamina is no reason to appreciate this terrific remedy of first-rate bop-n-blues. The “hard bop grandpop" has assembled a classy all-star lineup, reuniting with Michael and Randy Brecker (their last time together was on Silver's 1972 album In Pursuit of the 27th Man ) and adding one-time associates ...
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