Horace Silver
A true historical great who's style has changed the face of the jazz world over and over again. For more information check out www.bopcity.com and www.dh1.com
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top 50
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The Skunky Funky Blues The Skunky Funky Blues
Horace Silver’s enduring legend and continual creative pursuit of new of new music are the drive behind his career. “Rockin’ With Rachmaninoff” keeps the ball rolling and it’s not slowing down.Band/artist history
Silver's earliest musical influence was the Cape Verdean folk music he heard from his Portugese-born father. Later, after he had begun playing piano and saxophone as a high schooler, Silver came under the spell of blues singers and boogie-woogie pianists, as well as boppers like Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. In 1950, Stan Getz played a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, with a pickup rhythm section that included Silver, drummer Walter Bolden, and bassist Joe Calloway. So impressed was Getz, he hired the whole trio. Silver had been saving his money to move to New York anyway; his hiring by Getz sealed the deal. Silver worked with Getz for a year, then began to freelance around the city with such big-time players as Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Oscar Pettiford. In 1952, he recorded with Lou Donaldson for the Blue Note label; this date led him to his first recordings as a leader. In 1953, he joined forces with Art Blakey to form a cooperative under their joint leadership. The band's first album, Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, was a milestone in the development of the genre that came to be known as hard bop. Many of the tunes penned by Silver for that record "The Preacher," "Doodlin'," "Room 608" became jazz classics and have been performed and recorded by many musicians including Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, and Dizzy Gillespie among others. These same songs set a new standard in using soul in jazz. By 1956, Silver had left the Messengers to record on his own. The series of Blue Note albums that followed established Silver for all time as one of jazz's major composer/pianists. LPs like Blowin' the Blues Away and Song for My Father (both recorded by an ensemble which included Silver's longtime sidemen Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook) featured Silver's harmonically sophisticated and formally distinctive compositions for small jazz ensemble.Anything else?
The concept of "Rockin With Rachmaninoff" is based on a dream of Silver’s in which Duke Ellington and Rachmaninoff meet in heaven. Rachmaninoff is then introduced to many jazz greats such as Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Coleman Hawkins, “Muddy” Waters, Mahalia Jackson and many others. These jazzy tales converge many of the great styles largely pioneered by Silver.Contact
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Comments (22)
Bumping into Horace Silver on Soundclick is like waking up from a dream to discover it's not a dream! If I didn't have ears I'd still recognize Mr. Silver's music through my soul. I wish you well, Mr. Silver, and my hat's off to the high-flying vocalist in your song, "The Skunky Funky Blues".
one word...pure,warm and fantastic
Hello Mr. Silver,
I'm a big fan of yours. I want to pay my respect to your musical artistry of more than half a century. Here in Amsterdam we had our own 'Horace Silver quintet', and did a lot of gigs, dedicated to your music. 'The cape Verdian blues, Sister Sadie, Nutville, Metamorphosis, Senor Blues, and other all time favorites. Thank you!
Hinzaldi (flute and tenorsax)
Mr. Silver...
If this is indeed your site...It is an honor to leave a message Sir!!..
Horace Silver,
You are the greatest!
Never change,
Love and Peace,
Anna Fisher
