Horace Silver · New to them

New to Silver

Horace Silver was a pianist who wrote tunes people hum: bluesy, Latin-tinged, built on a groove. This path starts with his best-known record, goes back to his first trio and the band that became the Jazz Messengers, then follows his own quintets from the 1950s into the 1960s, with a few stops as a sideman along the way.

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Start with his father's song
Song For My Father Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 4185 · 1964
Released early in 1965, Song For My Father is the Horace Silver record most people have heard, even if they don't know the name. The man on the cover is his father, John Tavares Silver, born on Maio, one of the Cape Verde Islands, who taught his son the folk music of home. Silver built the title tune on a bossa nova rhythm he picked up on a three-week trip to Brazil in early 1964. The record caught his band in change: two tracks come from October 31, 1963, with his long-running quintet, the rest from October 26, 1964, with a new one, Carmell Jones on trumpet and Joe Henderson on tenor. It is the warmest way in, and it shows what Silver does best: a groove, a melody you can sing, and a band built around both.
Start with
- Song For My Father
- The Kicker
- Lonely Woman
The title tune has only four chords and a repeating figure in the bass; Steely Dan borrowed its opening notes for "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" ten years later. Bill Kirchner, writing for jazz.com, praises Henderson's solo on it, which grows out of three notes. "The Kicker" is Henderson's tune, the only one Silver didn't write. "Lonely Woman," from 1963, is a ballad for the trio alone.
In the band
Joe Henderson · tenor sax
Joe Henderson was born in Lima, Ohio, in 1937 and moved to New York in 1962, straight out of the Army. Kenny Dorham took an interest in him early, and from 1963 to 1968 he was on nearly 30 Blue Note records, five under his own name. He joined Silver soon after arriving and stayed until 1966. Much later, in the 1990s, his records for Verve, starting with a set of Billy Strayhorn tunes, brought him his widest audience.
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Where it started: the trio
Horace Silver Trio and Art Blakey-Sabu Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 1520 · 1956
Now go back to the beginning. Stan Getz heard Silver's trio in Hartford in 1950 and took it on the road; by 1952 Silver was in New York, and Alfred Lion gave him a trio date for Blue Note. This 12-inch gathers his first three dates as a leader, October 9 and 20, 1952, and November 23, 1953, all at WOR Studios in New York with Art Blakey on drums. Gene Ramey, Curley Russell and Percy Heath take turns on bass, and Sabu Martinez brings his congas for a duet with Blakey. Most of the tunes are Silver's own, which tells you from the start that he was a writer as much as a pianist. In 1954 he won Down Beat's New Star award for piano.
Start with
- Opus De Funk
- Ecaroh
- Safari
"Ecaroh" is Horace spelled backwards, and it has two themes, one to open and one to close. Ira Gitler, in the original notes, hears "Safari" as North African, with Blakey's drums talking in his solo. He calls "Opus De Funk," from the 1953 date with Heath, the heart of what Silver believed in. Notice how much of the music is in the tunes themselves.
In the band
Art Blakey · drums
Art Blakey, from Pittsburgh, had drummed for Fletcher Henderson in 1939 and spent the middle of the 1940s in Billy Eckstine's big band. He played on all three of these dates and was Silver's closest partner of the early 1950s. Leonard Feather placed him beside Max Roach and Kenny Clarke among the drummers who took modern jazz past the old patterns. On "Nothing But The Soul," Feather notes, Blakey plays entirely alone.
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A night at Birdland, 1954
A Night at Birdland Volume 1 Art Blakey · Blue Note BLP 1521 · 1956
On Sunday, February 21, 1954, Alfred Lion recorded Art Blakey's quintet live at Birdland, the club below street level on Broadway, a new venture for the label. Silver was on piano and Curley Russell on bass, with Lou Donaldson on alto and the young Clifford Brown on trumpet. Rudy Van Gelder taped the night, and Birdland's tiny master of ceremonies, Pee Wee Marquette, brings the band on. The band had no name yet. It comes here because it's the first live date on this path, and because it shows Silver as a sideman who was already shaping a band's book: two of these five tunes are his.
Start with
- Split Kick
- Quicksilver
- A Night In Tunisia
"Split Kick" is a Silver tune he first wrote and recorded with Stan Getz; "Quicksilver" is his too. On "A Night In Tunisia," Blakey tells the room he was there when Dizzy Gillespie wrote it, in Texas, on the bottom of a garbage can. Leonard Feather, in the original notes, credits the band with coming prepared and still playing free, without solos that run too long.
In the band
Clifford Brown · trumpet
Clifford Brown was 23 that night, a trumpeter from Wilmington, Delaware, who had toured Europe with Lionel Hampton's band the year before. Leonard Feather calls his ballad here, "Once In A While," a lyrical flight. Soon after Birdland he went west to form a quintet with Max Roach, and the two recorded steadily together. He was killed in a car accident in June 1956, at 25.
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The band that became the Messengers
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 1518 · 1956
In late 1954 Silver had a quartet at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem, and Alfred Lion wanted more of him. He brought in Kenny Dorham on trumpet and Art Blakey on drums, and kept two of his Minton's men, Hank Mobley on tenor and Doug Watkins on bass. Two dates at Van Gelder's in Hackensack, November 13, 1954, and February 6, 1955, gave eight tunes, seven of them Silver's. It was his first time leading horns on record, and the shape he chose, two horns and three rhythm, is the one he kept for most of his career. The band took the name the Jazz Messengers. Silver is credited as one of the founders of hard bop, and this is one of the places you can hear it begin.
Start with
- The Preacher
- Doodlin'
- Creepin' In
"The Preacher" was Silver's first hit. Ira Gitler hears it as close kin to "I've Been Working on the Railroad," and Alfred Lion nearly left it off as too old-fashioned until Silver and Blakey stood up for it. "Doodlin'" is a blues with the trumpet and tenor moving a whole tone apart in the theme. Gitler calls "Creepin' In" slow, slinky and funky.
In the band
Hank Mobley · tenor sax
Hank Mobley, born in Georgia in 1930 and raised in New Jersey, had been playing in Silver's quartet at Minton's before this date. He wrote "Hankerin'," the one tune here that isn't Silver's. He stayed with the Messengers until the first band broke up in 1956, then went with Silver. Over the next decade and more he made a long run of Blue Note records as leader, with Soul Station in 1960 the best known.
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Behind Miles Davis, spring 1954
Walkin' Miles Davis All Stars · Prestige PRLP 7076 · 1957
Step back to the spring of 1954, when Silver played piano on most of Miles Davis's record dates. This album comes from two of them, both at Van Gelder's in Hackensack: April 3, a quintet with Dave Schildkraut on alto, and April 29, a sextet with J.J. Johnson on trombone and Lucky Thompson on tenor. Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke were on bass and drums both times. The long title blues stayed in Davis's sets for years, and Wikipedia calls it key to the hard bop approach then taking shape. It's here to hear Silver as an accompanist, behind someone else, on one of the records that pointed jazz in his direction. The producer, Bob Weinstock, later named it his favorite of all the records he made.
Start with
- Walkin'
- Blue 'N' Boogie
- Solar
"Walkin'" fills most of side one, a long blues for the sextet. "Blue 'N' Boogie" is a Dizzy Gillespie tune. On the quintet side, "Solar" carries Davis's name, though a 2012 study traced it to Chuck Wayne's earlier "Sonny." Keep an ear on the piano under each soloist: that is Silver's job on this record, and the rhythm section is the same three men on both dates.
In the band
Miles Davis · trumpet
Miles Davis was 27 and had spent the early 1950s struggling with heroin. By early 1954 he had kicked it, and these sessions are where many listeners hear him coming back into form. He used Silver on most of his dates that year. In 1955 he formed his famous quintet with John Coltrane, and over the next 15 years he led one new band after another.
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His own quintet arrives
6 Pieces of Silver Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 1539 · 1956
When the first Jazz Messengers broke up in the summer of 1956, Silver took Hank Mobley, Donald Byrd and Doug Watkins with him and started working clubs under his own name. Louis Hayes, a young drummer from Detroit, came in on short notice. On Saturday, November 10, 1956, at Van Gelder's in Hackensack, they made this, which Leonard Feather marks in the original notes as the first record by a permanent group of Silver's own. Seven tunes, two of them trio pieces without the horns. From here on Silver was a bandleader first, and a sideman only when he chose.
Start with
- Senor Blues
- Cool Eyes
- Virgo
"Senor Blues" is in a minor key and in triple time; Silver called it 6/8, Feather heard 12/8. Scott Yanow at AllMusic says it officially put Silver on the map. "Cool Eyes" joins its solos, by Mobley, Byrd and Silver, with short unison passages for the horns. On "Virgo," named for Silver's birth sign, Hayes trades fours with the horns and takes a long solo.
In the band
Donald Byrd · trumpet
Donald Byrd was 23, a trumpeter from Detroit who had been at Cass Tech with Doug Watkins and had taken Kenny Dorham's place in the Messengers. In these years he seemed to be on half the hard bop records made in New York. He went on to lead his own records for Blue Note, and in the 1970s Black Byrd, a funk and soul record, made him one of the label's best sellers.
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Two pianists, one Sonny Rollins date
Sonny Rollins Volume 2 Sonny Rollins · Blue Note BLP 1558 · 1957
Silver kept taking sideman dates even with his own band running. On Sunday, April 14, 1957, at Van Gelder's, he was in Sonny Rollins's band with J.J. Johnson on trombone, Paul Chambers on bass and Art Blakey on drums. And Thelonious Monk came in to play piano on his own two tunes. On one of them, "Misterioso," both pianists are in the room. It's a chance to hear Silver set beside another pianist who wrote his own book, and to hear how differently the two of them sit behind the same horns. Dom Cerulli gave the record five stars in Down Beat.
Start with
- Misterioso
- Why Don't I
- Poor Butterfly
On "Misterioso," a slow blues, Monk plays the theme with the horns and comps behind Rollins. Silver takes over behind Johnson and then solos himself, and Monk comes back to close it. "Why Don't I" is a light, happy swinger with solos from Rollins, Johnson and Silver, and Blakey trading fours with the horns. "Poor Butterfly" closes the record at a relaxed tempo.
In the band
Thelonious Monk · piano
Thelonious Monk was 39 and, after years of being written off as too strange, was finally being heard. He had first recorded for Blue Note in 1947. That summer he began a long stand at the Five Spot with John Coltrane. Robert Levin, in the original notes, gives the Blue Note supervisors credit for arranging the two-piano "Misterioso." Here Monk plays just two tunes and leaves the rest of the date to Silver.
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The classic quintet takes shape
Finger Poppin' Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 4008 · 1959
By 1958 Silver had a new band: Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor and Gene Taylor on bass, with Louis Hayes still on drums. On January 31, 1959, at Van Gelder's in Hackensack, they made this, eight tunes, all Silver's. With Roy Brooks later taking over the drums, this front line stayed together until 1964, a long time for a jazz band, and it is the group most people mean when they say the Horace Silver Quintet. Leonard Feather wrote the original notes. Steve Huey at AllMusic calls the record one of Silver's all-time classics, and it is the best place to meet this band in the studio.
Start with
- Finger Poppin'
- Cookin' At The Continental
- Sweet Stuff
Bill Kirchner, writing for jazz.com, picks out "Cookin' At The Continental," a medium-up blues, for Silver's harmonically daring piano solo, and notes that his use of fourths influenced later pianists. The title tune opens the record. "Sweet Stuff" is the one track without the horns, a chance to hear Silver with just Taylor and Hayes.
In the band
Blue Mitchell · trumpet
Blue Mitchell, born in Miami in 1930, had spent three years touring with Earl Bostic's band. Back in Miami, Cannonball Adderley heard him and steered the Riverside producer Orrin Keepnews his way, and Mitchell made his first records as leader there. He joined Silver in 1958 and stayed until the band broke up in 1964. Then he led a group of Silver alumni, with Chick Corea on piano, and later worked with Ray Charles and John Mayall.
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Blues, a ballad and a hit
Blowin' The Blues Away Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 4017 · 1959
The same band went back to Van Gelder's, now in Englewood Cliffs, on August 29 and 30, 1959, and Silver came back alone with the rhythm section on September 13 for two trio pieces. Every tune is his. Two of them, "Sister Sadie" and "Peace," went out on a single, and both became standards. Silver later said he didn't know anyone named Sadie; the title just came to him. The Penguin Guide to Jazz put the album in its core collection as a showcase for Silver as pianist, composer and leader all at once. If one record sums up the late-1950s quintet, it's this one.
Start with
- Sister Sadie
- Peace
- Blowin' The Blues Away
Bill Kirchner hears a gospel feeling in "Sister Sadie" and says the quintet sounds almost like a big band on it; within a few years Gil Evans, Ray Charles and Woody Herman had recorded it. "Peace" is a rare slow ballad from Silver, only ten bars long. The title tune opens the record. "The St. Vitus Dance" is one of the two trio tracks.
In the band
Louis Hayes · drums
Louis Hayes, born in Detroit in 1937, came to New York in August 1956 to take the drum chair in Silver's new quintet, and stayed three years. This was one of his last records with Silver: in 1959 he left to join Cannonball Adderley's quintet, where he stayed until 1965, and then followed Ed Thigpen in the Oscar Peterson Trio. He went on leading bands of his own for decades and was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2023.
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New drummer, and Nica's Dream
Horace-Scope Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 4042 · 1960
On July 8 and 9, 1960, at Van Gelder's in Englewood Cliffs, the quintet had a new drummer, Roy Brooks, in place of Louis Hayes. Silver wrote six of the seven tunes; the other, "Without You," is by Don Newey. One of the six was not new. Silver wrote "Nica's Dream" in 1954 for Pannonica de Koenigswarter, the baroness and jazz patron, and this is his own first studio recording of it. Steve Huey at AllMusic hears the record as full of soulful grooves and well-honed group interplay. It's here to hear the band settled in, two years on, with a new engine at the drums.
Start with
- Nica's Dream
- Strollin'
- Horace-Scope
On "Nica's Dream," a long AABA tune, the A sections ride a Latin pattern and the bridge switches between backbeat accents and straight four-beat swing: listen for the change each time it comes round. It also came out as a single. "Strollin'" opens the record, and "Horace-Scope" plays on his name, like "Ecaroh" before it.
In the band
Roy Brooks · drums
Roy Brooks, born in Detroit in 1938, had left college to tour with Yusef Lateef before Silver hired him in 1959. He stayed until 1964. Afterwards he freelanced in New York with Lee Morgan, Dexter Gordon and Chet Baker, rejoined Lateef, and in 1970 became a member of Max Roach's percussion group M'Boom. He played with Charles Mingus in 1972 and 1973, then went home to Detroit, where he died in 2005.
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Live at the Village Gate
Doin' The Thing Horace Silver · Blue Note BLP 4076 · 1961
Every Silver record so far on this path but one was made in a studio. On May 19 and 20, 1961, Blue Note took the quintet to the Village Gate in Greenwich Village, with Rudy Van Gelder recording. It is the only live album by this lineup, Mitchell, Cook, Gene Taylor and Roy Brooks, and the band stretches out: four long performances, all Silver's tunes, three of them past 11 minutes. Scott Yanow at AllMusic hears Silver and his most acclaimed quintet stretching out. If the studio records show how well the tunes are built, this shows what the band did with them in front of a crowd.
Start with
- Filthy McNasty
- Doin' The Thing
- Kiss Me Right
"Filthy McNasty" opens the set and runs past 11 minutes, and the title tune is longer still. "Kiss Me Right" runs just over nine. The record ends with "The Gringo," which leads straight into "Cool Eyes," used here as the band's sign-off theme. Listen for how long each man is given to build a solo.
In the band
Junior Cook · tenor sax
Junior Cook, from Pensacola, Florida, started on alto and switched to tenor in high school. He played with Dizzy Gillespie in 1958 before joining Silver that year, and he stayed six years. When Silver broke the band up in 1964, Cook stayed on with Blue Mitchell, who took the group over, until 1969. Later he worked with Freddie Hubbard, Elvin Jones and Louis Hayes, and taught for a year at Berklee.
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Back to the islands
The Cape Verdean Blues The Horace Silver Quintet Plus J.J. Johnson · Blue Note BLP 4220 · 1965
By the fall of 1965 the band had turned over again. Woody Shaw, just back from Europe, was on trumpet, Joe Henderson was still on tenor, and Bob Cranshaw and Roger Humphries made up the rhythm section. Silver drew the album from his father's Cape Verde, the islands you met at the start of this path, and on the second date, October 22, J.J. Johnson came in as a third horn. Silver wrote five of the six tunes; Henderson wrote "Mo' Joe." It ends this path with a new, younger band and an old idea still feeding him: the music of home, turned into his kind of groove. There is plenty more of Silver past this point.
Start with
- The Cape Verdean Blues
- Nutville
- Pretty Eyes
"Pretty Eyes" is a jazz waltz, and Bill Kirchner hears Shaw and Henderson on it as lyrical, probing and tough. "Nutville," with Johnson, is a galloping minor blues crossed with a mambo, and Kirchner praises the solos by all three horns, Silver and Humphries. The title tune comes from the first date, the quintet alone.
In the band
Woody Shaw · trumpet
Woody Shaw was 20, born in North Carolina and raised in Newark. He made his first record with Eric Dolphy in 1963, and after Dolphy died in Berlin in 1964 he went on to Paris anyway and worked around Europe. Back home in 1965 he took Carmell Jones's place with Silver. Later he played with Art Blakey, signed with Columbia in 1977 on Miles Davis's word, and led his own bands until his death in 1989.
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