The Horace Silver Quintet ¦ Song For My Father (Cantiga Para Meu Pai)
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Veröffentlichung Song For My Father (Cantiga Para Meu Pai):
1964
Hörbeispiel(e) Song For My Father (Cantiga Para Meu Pai):
Song For My Father (Cantiga Para Meu Pai) auf Wikipedia (oder andere Quellen):
Song for My Father (Cantiga para Meu Pai) ist ein Jazz-Album des Horace-Silver-Quintetts, das in drei Sessions von Oktober 1963 bis Oktober 1964 aufgenommen und im Januar 1965 auf dem Blue Note Label veröffentlicht wurde.
Die Musik des Albums
Es ist ein lebhaftes ansteckendes Hardbopalbum. Lediglich Silvers Album Blowin’ the Blues Away hat noch die gleiche Geschlossenheit der Stücke. Die drei Aufnahmetermine, für die Original-LP nur zwei, mit verschiedenen Besetzungen, rühren daher, dass Silver gerade in dieser Zeit sein Quintett auflöste und ein neues zusammenstellte, was der Geschlossenheit aber keinen Abbruch tat. Silver mischt hier unterschiedliche, ansteckende Rhythmen mit raffinierten Harmonien und Melodien. Auf diesem Album versteht er es am besten, eine Erdgebundenheit mit einer leichten Geistigkeit zu vereinen. Es kommen stets die für Silver typischen Einwürfe der Bläser vor. Sicher spielt auch Silvers präzises und treibendes Comping (Begleiten) für die besondere Qualität der Soli eine Rolle.
Nach einem Aufenthalt in Brasilien, wo er bei Flora Purim wohnte, wollte Silver ein Stück in dem von ihm begeistert aufgenommenen Bossa-Nova-Stil schreiben.
„Ich begann zu versuchen, ein Stück mit diesem rhythmischen Konzept zu schreiben. Ich setzte mich für einige Stunden ans Klavier und mir gelang ein Stück, das den Bossa Nova-Rhythmus benutzte. Dennoch hörte sich für mich die Melodie nicht brasilianisch an. Es klang mehr wie eine der alten kapverdischen Melodien, die mein Vater gespielt hatte. Mein Vater hatte mich immer wieder gebeten, einen der alten kapverdischen Songs zu nehmen und daraus eine Jazzbearbeitung zu machen. Die Idee sagte mir nicht zu, aber als ich merkte, dass ich ein Stück mit einem brasilianischen Rhythmuskonzept und einem kapverdischen Melodiekonzept geschrieben hatte, dachte ich sofort daran, es meinem Vater zu widmen. So nannte ich es Song for My Father (Lied für meinen Vater). Wir ließen ihn für das Cover der LP fürs Foto Modell stehen.“[1]
Der Jazzstandard Song for My Father erscheint auf dem Album in seiner ursprünglichen Form. Es ist ein Bossa Nova in AAB-Form in f-Moll. Beim Kopfteil des Stückes spielen Trompete und Saxophon zusammen. Es folgen Klavier- und Saxophonsolo. Das Stück hatte einen bemerkenswerten Einfluss in der Popmusik. Die einleitenden Bassnoten (die Quinte f-c im Bossa-Rhythmus) des Klaviers haben Steely Dan für ihren Song Rikki Don't Lose That Number genutzt, während Stevie Wonder das Bläserriff am Anfang verwendete. Das Stück wird auch auf den Alben Shades of Blue von Madlib und Hand on the Torch von Us3 bearbeitet. Horace Silver zufolge verkaufte sich das Album gut.[1] Silver beginnt mit einem durchkonzipierten spannenden Klaviersolo. Hendersons vielkopiertes Saxophonsolo bleibt anderthalb A-Formteile nahe der Melodie und bricht danach erst spielerisch und endlich im B-Teil mit kaum vorstellbarer Kraft aus, um erst bei der Überleitung zum Thema nach dem dritten Chorus zu verklingen.
Das sehr schnelle The Natives Are Restless Tonight ist ein Moll-Blues und das einzige typische Hardbopstück auf dem Album. Es enthält schöne Soli, mit einfühlsamer Zusammenarbeit zwischen Humphries und Jones, einen „Leerlauf“ des Bassisten, er spielt dort lediglich unbegleiteten Walking Bass, und Humphries’ kurzes Solo.
Das Stück Calcutta Cutie hat ein östliches indisches leichtes Flair mit meditativen Phasen in den Improvisationen.
Que Pasa? (Was geschieht hier?) hat, wie der Titel verrät, mit punktiertem Rhythmus, getragener sanglicher gedankenvoller Melodie und teils hingetupftem Klavier eine Stimmung aus der Musik des spanischsprechenden Mittelamerika, und fällt immer wieder in rhythmisch antreibende Teile. Das Stück hat einen gleichbleibend durchgehenden Bass, über dem Septakkorde wechseln[2], und ist mit seiner deutlich ruhigeren Stimmung dem Titelstück sehr ähnlich.
Das rhythmisch schwierige und hier dennoch eingängige The Kicker von Joe Henderson ist ebenfalls zum Standard geworden – Henderson spielt es auch auf seinem 1967 bei Milestone erschienenen gleichnamigen Album. Treibende Soli kommen von Henderson und Jones.
Lonely Woman ist eine langsame, lyrische Pianoballade im Trio.
Der Gesamteindruck des Albums ist warm und einladend, was für ein Hardbopalbum ungewöhnlich ist.
Auf dem Nachfolgealbum The Cape Verdean Blues wird die gelungene Zusammenarbeit, insbesondere von Henderson und Humphries, mit weiteren Stücken Silvers in dieser Art, die aber insgesamt ruhiger sind, fortgesetzt.
Titelfolge
- Seite A
- Song for My Father – 7:15
- The Natives Are Restless Tonight – 6:08
- Calcutta Cutie – 8:28[3]
- Seite B
- Que Pasa – 7:45
- The Kicker – 5:24
- Lonely Woman – 7:03
- CD-Bonustracks
- Sanctimonious Sam – 3:52
- Que Pasa (trio version) – 5:35
- Sighin' and Cryin' – 5:23
- Silver Treads Among My Soul – 3:50
Alle Kompositionen sind von Horace Silver außer 5. von Joe Henderson, 7. von Musa Kaleem. Aufgenommen im Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: 3, 6, 7, 8 – 31. Oktober 1963; 9, 10 – 28. Januar 1964; 1, 2, 4, 5 – 26. Oktober 1964.
Die Titel 7 bis 10 sind auf der Original-LP nicht enthalten und wurden verschiedenen CD-Wiederveröffentlichungen hinzugefügt.
Entstehungsgeschichte
Das erfolgreichste Blue-Note-Album von Silver fällt für ihn, der für seine effiziente, wohldurchdachte Aufnahme-Sessions bekannt war, aus dem Rahmen, da die Aufnahmen aus zwei Besetzungen über einen Zeitraum von einem Jahr stammen[4]. Ursprünglich war es als Album für seine alte langjährige Quintett-Besetzung mit Mitchell und Cook gedacht. Aus der ersten Session vom Oktober 1963 stammen die Nummern (3) und (6) bis (8), von denen der Blue Note-Chef Alfred Lion und Silver später nur (3) und (6) in das Originalalbum übernahmen. Die Trio-Version von „Que Pasa“ (8) und „Sanctimonious Sam“ (7) wurden erst 1979 auf Sterling Silver veröffentlicht.
In einer Aufnahme-Session bei Rudy Van Gelder drei Monate später, im Januar 1964, sollten die übrigen Stücke aufgenommen werden; Silver war aber mit der Arbeit unzufrieden. Daraus stammen (9) (veröffentlicht ebenfalls auf Sterling Silver) und (10) (erst 1989 auf der Wiederveröffentlichung von Song for My Father).[5] Nach Silvers eigenen Angaben gegenüber Michael Cuscuna, mit dem er später die Blue Note-Archive nach veröffentlichungsfähigem Material durchhörte, regte ihn Alfred Lion nach dieser Session an, eine neue, frischere Band zusammenzustellen. Mit dem neuen, im Frühjahr 1964 gebildeten Quintett um Henderson und Carmel Jones wollte Silver dann neues Material live einspielen – sie planten im August ein längeres Engagement im „Pep’s“ in Philadelphia – und so das Album ergänzen. Eine Session im Frühjahr 1964 scheiterte nach Silver teilweise daran, dass sich Carmell Jones erst in Silvers Quintett eingewöhnen musste. In einer Session bei Rudy Van Gelder im Oktober 1964 wurden dann aber doch die schon für die Live-Aufnahmen geplanten Stücke (2), (4), (5) sowie das von Silver neu komponierte (1) eingebracht. Lion wollte nicht länger auf ein neues Silver-Album warten – zudem witterte er in „Song for My Father“ einen Hit – und stellte dann aus der ersten Session und der letzten die Langspielplatte zusammen. Aus dem erfolgreichen Album wurde das Titelstück als Single ausgekoppelt.
Besetzung
- Titel 1, 2, 4, 5
- Horace Silver – Klavier
- Carmell Jones – Trompete
- Joe Henderson – Tenorsaxophon
- Teddy Smith – Bass
- Roger Humphries – Schlagzeug
- Titel 3, 6 – 10
- Horace Silver – Klavier
- Blue Mitchell – Trompete (außer 6 und 8)
- Junior Cook – Tenorsaxophon (außer 6 und 8)
- Gene Taylor – Bass
- Roy Brooks – Schlagzeug
Wirkungsgeschichte
Down Beat lobte das Album in seiner Besprechung im Februar 1965: „Offensichtlich ist in Silvers Klavierspiel die Liebe zu grundlegender Melodik verbunden mit der klugen Umsetzung der Einfälle und einem nachdrücklichen rhythmischen Schwung, dort wo er nötig ist.“[6] Ralf Dombrowski, der Song for My Father für eine der Platten seiner „Basis-Diskothek Jazz“ auswählte, wies ergänzend darauf hin, dass „genau die Kunst der passenden Balance der dynamischen und songdramaturgischen Ausdrucksmittel“ dafür sorgt, dass das Werk „in sich rund und ruhend“ erscheint und letztlich „zu Silvers bekanntestem Album“ wurde.[6]
Die Hörer der BBC wählten in den 1990er Jahren das Album bei einer Umfrage zu The Top 100 Jazz Albums auf den 71. Platz. Richard Cook und Brian Morton zählten in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Song for My Father und Silvers Blue Note-Album von 1966, The Jody Grind, zu Silvers besten Alben und bewerteten beide Alben mit der Höchstnote von vier Sternen. Insbesondere bei dem ersten Album lobten sie „das brillante Zusammenspiel von Joe Henderson und Carmell Jones“. Brian Priestley erwähnt, dass es wohl Silvers erfolgreichsten Titel enthält, aber auch vom modalen Jazz beeinflusste Titel wie Que Pasa.
Das Album war zusammen mit Lee Morgans ebenfalls 1964 entstandenem The Sidewinder – auch mit Joe Henderson – ein so großer Erfolg für Blue Note, dass sie das Label paradoxerweise, um genügend Kapital für eine Expansion, zu bekommen bald darauf (1965) an Liberty Records verkauften[7]. Auch für den kurz zuvor bei Blue Note unter Vertrag genommenen Joe Henderson war das Album ein Durchbruch.
Die Musikzeitschrift Jazzwise nahm das Album in die Liste The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World auf; Keith Shadwick schrieb:
- „Während der fünf Jahre, in denen er das Junior Cook-Blue Mitchell-Quintett zusammenhielt, hatte Silver die perfekte Kombination seiner hochwertigen Stücke und einer Band, die einen magisch interpretativen Touch hatte. Sie alle spielten in einer Weise zusammen, die das Ensemble zu einem der großartigsten der 1960er Jahre werden ließ.“[8][9]
Literatur
- Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather, Brian Priestley: Rough Guide Jazz. Der ultimative Führer zum Jazz. 1800 Bands und Künstler von den Anfängen bis heute. 2., erweiterte und aktualisierte Auflage. Metzler, Stuttgart/Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-01892-X.
- Richard Cook, Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. 6. Auflage. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6.
- Collin Larkin: All Time Top 1000 Albums. Guinness, London 1994
Weblinks
- Song for My Father bei AllMusic (englisch). Abgerufen am 13. Dezember 2023.
- The Horace Silver Quintet: Song for My Father auf YouTube
- The Horace Silver Quintet: Lonely Woman auf YouTube
Einzelnachweise
- ↑ a b Horace Silver, Let’s Get to the Nitty Gritty, Autobiografie
- ↑ Liner Notes von Leonard Feather
- ↑ Dieser Titel wird irrtümlich auf dem Album mit den falschen Musikern angeführt. In den Liner Notes steht es jedoch richtig.
- ↑ Im Folgenden wird die Entstehungsgeschichte nach Bob Blumenthal’s Liner Notes (1999) der "Rudy Van Gelder" Edition des Albums wiedergegeben
- ↑ Eine dritte Aufnahme schaffte es nicht bis zum „Master-Take“.
- ↑ a b Ralf Dombrowski: Basis-Diskothek Jazz (= Reclams Universal-Bibliothek. Nr. 18372). Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-018372-3, S. 189f.
- ↑ Richard Cook Blue Note, Argon Verlag, S. 228ff
- ↑ Im Original: „For the five years he held his Junior Cook-Blue Mitchell quintet together, Silver had the perfect combination of his high-quality tunes and a band that had a magic interpretative touch. They all played for each other to such an extent that the group became one of the true 1960s greats. “.
- ↑ Jazzwise. Abgerufen am 29. April 2024 (englisch).
Artist(s)
Veröffentlichungen von The Horace Silver Quintet die im OTRS erhältlich sind/waren:
Further Explorations ¦ Song For My Father (Cantiga Para Meu Pai)
The Horace Silver Quintet auf Wikipedia (oder andere Quellen):
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver[note 1] (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing. Frequent sideman recordings in the mid-1950s helped further, but it was his work with the Jazz Messengers, co-led by Art Blakey, that brought both his writing and playing most attention. Their Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers album contained Silver's first hit, "The Preacher". After leaving Blakey in 1956, Silver formed his own quintet, with what became the standard small group line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. Their public performances and frequent recordings for Blue Note Records increased Silver's popularity, even through changes of personnel. His most successful album was Song for My Father, made with two iterations of the quintet in 1963 and 1964.
Several changes occurred in the early 1970s: Silver disbanded his group to spend more time with his wife and to concentrate on composing; he included lyrics in his recordings; and his interest in spiritualism developed. The last two of these were often combined, resulting in commercially unsuccessful releases such as The United States of Mind series. Silver left Blue Note after 28 years, founded his own record label, and scaled back his touring in the 1980s, relying in part on royalties from his compositions for income. In 1993, he returned to major record labels, releasing five albums before gradually withdrawing from public view because of health problems.
As a player, Silver transitioned from bebop to hard bop by stressing melody rather than complex harmony, and combined clean and often humorous right-hand lines with darker notes and chords in a near-perpetual left-hand rumble. His compositions similarly emphasized catchy melodies, but often also contained dissonant harmonies. Many of his varied repertoire of songs, including "Doodlin'", "Peace", and "Sister Sadie", became jazz standards that are still widely played. His considerable legacy encompasses his influence on other pianists and composers, and the development of young jazz talents who appeared in his bands over the course of four decades.
Early life
Silver was born on September 2, 1928, in Norwalk, Connecticut.[2] His mother, Gertrude, was from Connecticut; his father, John Tavares Silver, was born on the island of Maio, Cape Verde, and emigrated to the United States as a young man.[3][note 2] She was a maid and sang in a church choir;[5] he worked for a tire company.[6] Horace had a much older half-brother, Eugene Fletcher, from his mother's first marriage, and was the third child for his parents, after John, who lived to six months, and Maria, who was stillborn.[7]
Silver began playing the piano in his childhood and had classical music lessons.[8] His father taught him the folk music of Cape Verde.[9] At the age of 11, Silver became interested in becoming a musician, after hearing the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra.[10] His early piano influences included the styles of boogie-woogie and the blues, the pianists Nat King Cole, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Art Tatum, and Teddy Wilson, as well as some jazz horn players.[11]
Silver graduated from St. Mary's Grammar School in 1943.[12] From ninth grade, he played Lester Young-influenced tenor saxophone in the Norwalk High School band and orchestra.[13] Silver played gigs locally on both piano and tenor saxophone while still at school.[14] He was rejected for military service by a draft board examination that concluded that he had an excessively curved spine,[15] which also interfered with his saxophone playing.[16] Around 1946 he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, to take up a regular job as pianist in a nightclub.[17]
Later life and career
1950–55
Silver's break came in 1950, when his trio backed saxophonist Stan Getz at a club in Hartford: Getz liked Silver's band and recruited them to tour with him.[2] The saxophonist also gave Silver his recording debut, in December 1950, for a quartet date.[18] After about a year, Silver was replaced as pianist in Getz's band and he moved to New York City.[19] There, working as a freelance, he quickly built a reputation, based on his compositions and bluesy playing.[20][21] He worked for short periods with tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins,[22] before meeting altoist Lou Donaldson, with whom he developed his bebop understanding.[23] Donaldson made his first recording on Blue Note Records in 1952, with Silver on piano, Gene Ramey on bass and Art Taylor on drums.[23] Later that year, another Blue Note quartet session was booked for Donaldson, with Art Blakey replacing Taylor, but the saxophonist withdrew and producer–owner Alfred Lion offered Silver the studio time for a trio recording.[24] Most of the tracks recorded at it were Silver originals,[2] and he went on to stay with Blue Note as a leader for the following 28 years.[22]
Silver was also busy recording as a sideman. In 1953, he was pianist on sessions led by Sonny Stitt, Howard McGhee, and Al Cohn, and, the following year, he played on albums by Art Farmer, Miles Davis, Milt Jackson and others.[25] Silver won the Down Beat critics' new star award for piano players in 1954,[26] and appeared at the first Newport Jazz Festival, substituting for John Lewis in the Modern Jazz Quartet.[27] Silver's early 1950s recordings demonstrate that Powell was a major pianistic influence, but this had waned by the middle of the decade.[28]
In New York, Silver and Blakey co-founded the Jazz Messengers, a cooperatively-run group that initially recorded under various leaders and names.[29] Their first two studio recordings, with Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and Doug Watkins on bass, were made in late 1954 and early 1955 and were released as two 10-inch albums under Silver's name,[30] then soon thereafter as the 12-inch Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers.[2] This album contained Silver's first hit, "The Preacher".[31] Unusually in Silver's career, recordings of concert performances were also released at this time, involving quintets at Birdland (1954) and the Café Bohemia (1955).[32] This set of studio and concert recordings was pivotal in the development and defining of hard bop,[33] which combined elements of blues, gospel, and R&B, with bebop-based harmony and rhythm.[34] The new, funky hard bop was commercially popular,[35] and helped to establish Blue Note as a successful business.[36]
1956–69
Silver's final recordings with the Jazz Messengers were in May 1956.[37] Later that year, he left Blakey after one and a half years,[34][38] in part because of the heroin use prevalent in the band,[2] which Silver did not want to be involved in.[39] Soon after leaving, Silver formed his own long-term quintet, after receiving offers of work from club owners who had heard his albums.[40] The first line-up was Mobley (tenor saxophone), Farmer (trumpet), Watkins (bass), and Louis Hayes (drums).[40] The quintet, with various line-ups, continued to record, helping Silver to build his reputation.[41] He wrote almost all of the material the band played;[41] one of these, "Señor Blues", "officially put Horace Silver on the map", in the view of critic Scott Yanow.[42] In concert, Silver "won over the crowds through his affable personality and all-action approach. He crouched over the piano as the sweat poured out, with his forelock brushing the keys and his feet pounding."[2]
After more than a dozen sideman recording sessions in 1955 and a similar number in 1956–57, Silver's appearance on Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2 in April 1957 was his last for another leader, as he opted to concentrate on his own band.[22][43] For several years from the late 1950s, this contained Junior Cook (tenor saxophone), Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Gene Taylor (bass), and either Hayes or Roy Brooks (drums). Their first album was Finger Poppin', in 1959.[44] Silver's tour of Japan early in 1962[45][46] led to the album The Tokyo Blues, recorded later that year.[47] By the early 1960s, Silver's quintet had influenced numerous bandleaders and was among the most popular performers at jazz clubs.[5] They also released singles, including "Blowin' the Blues Away", "Juicy Lucy", and "Sister Sadie", for jukebox and radio play.[48][49] This quintet's sixth and final album was Silver's Serenade, in 1963.[50]
Around this time, Silver composed music for a television commercial for the drink Tab.[51] Early in 1964, Silver visited Brazil for three weeks,[52] an experience he credited with increasing his interest in his heritage.[51] In the same year, he created a new quintet, featuring Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Carmell Jones on trumpet.[53] This band recorded most of Silver's best-known album, Song for My Father,[53] which reached No. 95 on the Billboard 200 in 1965,[9] and was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.[54] Recordings and personnel changes – sometimes expanding the band to a sextet – continued in the mid-1960s.[55] In 1966, The Cape Verdean Blues charted at No. 130.[9] The liner notes to the album Serenade to a Soul Sister (1968) included lyrics (written but not sung), indicating a new interest for Silver.[56] His quintet, by then including saxophonist Bennie Maupin, trumpeter Randy Brecker, bassist John Williams, and drummer Billy Cobham, toured parts of Europe in October and November 1968, sponsored by the U.S. government.[57][58] They also recorded one of Silver's last quintet albums for Blue Note, You Gotta Take a Little Love.[59] The Penguin Guide to Jazz's retrospective summary of Silver's main Blue Note recordings was that they were of a consistently high standard: "each album yields one or two themes that haunt the mind, each usually has a particularly pretty ballad, and they all lay back on a deep pile of solid riffs and workmanlike solos."[47]
1970–80
At the end of 1970, Silver broke up his regular band, to concentrate on composing and to spend more time with his wife.[60] He had met Barbara Jean Dove in 1968 and married her two years later.[61] They had a son, Gregory.[62] Silver also became increasingly interested in spiritualism from the early 1970s.[2][63]
Silver included lyrics in more of his compositions at this point, although these were sometimes regarded as doggerel or proselytizing.[2][34] The first album to contain vocals, That Healin' Feelin' (1970[64]), was commercially unsuccessful and Silver had to insist on the support of Blue Note executives to continue releasing music of the same, new style.[34] They agreed to a further two albums that contained vocals and Silver on an RMI electric keyboard; the three were later compiled as The United States of Mind, but were soon dropped from the catalog.[65]
Silver reformed a touring band in 1973.[60] This contained brothers Michael and Randy Brecker.[66] Around this time, according to saxophonist Dave Liebman, Silver's reputation among aspiring young jazz musicians was that he was "a little – not commercial, but not quite the real deal [in jazz]."[67] Silver and his family decided to move to California around 1974, after a burglary at their New York City apartment while they were in Europe.[68] The couple divorced in the mid-1970s.[62]
In 1975, he recorded Silver 'n Brass, the first of five Silver 'n albums, which had other instruments added to the quintet.[69][70] The personnel in his band continued to change, and continued to contain young musicians who made telling contributions.[71] One of these was trumpeter Tom Harrell, who stayed from 1973 to 1977.[71][72] Silver's pattern in the late 1970s was to tour for six months a year.[73] His final Blue Note album was Silver 'n Strings, recorded in 1978 and 1979.[74] His stay was the longest in the label's history.[75] By Silver's account, he left Blue Note after its parent company was sold and the new owners were not interested in promoting jazz.[76] In 1980, he formed the record label Silveto, "dedicated to the spiritual, holistic, self-help elements in music", he commented.[34] Silver also formed Emerald at the same time,[76] a label for straight-ahead jazz, but it was short-lived.[34]
1981–98
The first Silveto release was Guides to Growing Up in 1981, which contained recitations from actor and comedian Bill Cosby.[77][78] Silver stated in the same year that he had reduced his touring to four months a year, so that he could spend more time with his son.[79] This also meant that he had to audition for new band members on an annual basis.[79] He continued to write lyrics for his new albums, although these were not always included on the recordings themselves.[80][81] The song titles reflected his spiritual, self-help thinking; for example, Spiritualizing the Senses from 1983 included "Seeing with Perception" and "Moving Forward with Confidence".[81][82] The next albums were There's No Need to Struggle (1983) and The Continuity of Spirit (1985).[83] His band for performances in the UK and elsewhere in 1987 included trumpeter Dave Douglas and saxophonist Vincent Herring.[84][85] Douglas reported that Silver seldom gave direct verbal guidelines about the music, preferring to lead through playing.[85] A revival of interest in more traditional forms of jazz in the 1980s largely passed Silver by,[86] and his albums on Silveto were not critical successes.[5] Its last release was Music to Ease Your Disease, in 1988.[87] By the early 1990s Silver did not often play at jazz festivals,[88] but his need to tour was limited, as he received steady royalties from his songbook.[22]
Rockin' with Rachmaninoff, a musical work featuring dancers and narration, written by Silver and choreographed and directed by Donald McKayle, was staged in Los Angeles in 1991.[89] A recording of the work was released on Bop City Records in 2003.[90] After a decade of trying to make his independent label work, Silver abandoned it in 1993, and signed to Columbia Records.[91][92] This also signalled a return to mostly instrumental releases.[5] The first of these, It's Got to Be Funky, was a rare big band album.[92][93] Silver came close to dying soon after its release: he was hospitalized with a previously undiagnosed blood clot problem,[94] but went on to record Pencil Packin' Papa, containing a six-piece brass section, in 1994.[95] That year, he also played as a guest on Dee Dee Bridgewater's album Love and Peace: A Tribute to Horace Silver.[96]
Silver received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award in 1995,[5] and in the following year was added to Down Beat's Jazz Hall of Fame[97] and received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.[98] He moved from Columbia to Impulse! Records, where he made the septet The Hardbop Grandpop (1996) and the quintet A Prescription for the Blues (1997).[99] The former was nominated for two Grammy Awards: as an album for best instrumental performance, individual or group; and for Silver's solo on "Diggin' on Dexter".[100] He was again unwell in 1997, so was unable to tour to promote his records.[94] His final studio recording was made in the following year – Jazz Has a Sense of Humor, for Verve Records.[101] One continuation from his early career was that Silver recorded his own compositions for his later albums and they were typically new, rather than re-workings of previous releases.[102]
1999–2014
Silver performed in public for the first time in four years in 2004, appearing with an octet at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York.[103] He was rarely seen in public after this.[104] In 2005, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded him its President's Merit Award.[5][54] In 2006, Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver, was published by the University of California Press.[105] A 2008 release, Live at Newport '58, from a Silver concert fifty years earlier, reached the top ten of Billboard's jazz chart.[106]
In 2007, it was revealed that Silver had Alzheimer's disease.[104][107][108] He died of natural causes in New Rochelle, New York, on June 18, 2014, aged 85.[34] He was survived by his son.[9]
Playing style
Silver's early recordings displayed "a crisp, chipper but slightly wayward style, idiosyncratic enough to take him out of the increasingly stratified realms of bebop".[109] In contrast to the more elaborate bebop piano, he stressed straightforward melodies rather than complex harmonies, and included short riffs and motifs that came and went over the course of a solo.[5][110] While his right hand provided cleanly played lines, his left added bouncy, darker notes and chords in a near-perpetual rumble.[37][110] Silver "always played percussively, rarely suggesting excessive force on the keys but mustering a crisp [...] sound."[110] His fingering was idiosyncratic, but this added to the individuality of his pianism, particularly to the authenticity of the blues facets of his playing.[111] The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave the overall assessment that "Blues and gospel-tinged devices and percussive attacks give his methods a more colourful style, and a generous good humour gives all his records an upbeat feel."[109] Part of the humor was Silver's predilection for quoting other pieces of music in his own playing.[112]
Writer and academic Thomas Owens stated that characteristics of Silver's solos were: "the short, simple phrases that all derive from the three-beat figure ♩ ♩ | ♩, or a variant of it; the pianist's 'blue fifth' (those rapid slurs up to [... a flattened fifth]); and the low tone cluster used strictly as a rhythmic punctuation".[112] He also employed blues and minor pentatonic scales.[113] Music journalist Marc Myers observed that "Silver's advantage was pianistic grace and a keen awareness that by resolving dark, minor-passages in airy, ascending and descending major-key chord configurations, the result could produce an exciting and uplifting feeling."[41] In his accompanying of a soloing saxophonist or trumpeter, Silver was also distinctive: "Rather than reacting to the soloist's melody and waiting for melodic holes to fill, he typically plays background patterns similar to the background riffs that saxes or brasses play behind soloists in big bands."[113]
Compositions
Early in his career, Silver composed contrafacts and blues-based melodies (including "Doodlin'" and "Opus de Funk").[102] The latter was "a typical Silver creation: advanced in its harmonic structure and general approach but with a catchy tune and finger-snapping beat."[101] His innovative incorporation of gospel and blues sounds into jazz compositions took place while they were also being added to rock 'n' roll and R&B pieces.[114]
Silver soon expanded the range and style of his writing,[102] which grew to include "funky groove tunes, gentle mood pieces, vamp songs, outings in 3/4 and 6/8 time, Latin workouts of various stripes, up-tempo jam numbers, and examples of almost any and every other kind of approach congruent with the hard bop aesthetic."[115] An unusual case is "Peace", a ballad that prioritizes a calm mood over melodic or harmonic effects.[116] Owens observed that "Many of his compositions contain no folk blues or gospel music elements, but instead have highly chromatic melodies supported by richly dissonant harmonies".[113] The compositions and arrangements were also designed to make Silver's typical line-up sound larger than a quintet.[117]
Silver himself commented that inspiration came from multiple sources: "I'm inspired by nature and by some of the people I meet and some of the events that take place in my life. I'm inspired by my mentors. I'm inspired by various religious doctrines. [...] Many of my songs are impressed on my mind just before I wake up. Others I get from just doodlin' around on the piano".[118] He also wrote that, "when I wake up with a melody in my head, I jump right out of bed before I forget it and run to the piano and my tape recorder. I play the melody with my right hand and then harmonize it with my left. I put it down on my tape recorder, and then I work on getting a bridge or eightbar release for the tune."[119]
Influence and legacy
Silver was among the most influential jazz musicians of his lifetime.[101] Grove Music Online describes his legacy as at least fourfold: as a pioneer of hard bop; as a user of what became the archetypal quintet instrumentation of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums; as a developer of young musicians who went on to become important players and bandleaders; and for his skill as a composer and arranger.[120]
Silver was also an influence as a pianist: his first Blue Note recording as leader "redefined the jazz piano, which up until then was largely modeled on the dexterity and relentless attack of Bud Powell", in Myers' words.[41] As early as 1956, Silver's piano playing was described by Down Beat as "a key influence on a large segment of modern jazz pianists."[22] This went on to include Ramsey Lewis, Les McCann, Bobby Timmons,[120] and Cecil Taylor, who was impressed by Silver's aggressive style.[2]
Silver's legacy as a composer may be greater than as a pianist, because his works, many of which are jazz standards, continue to be performed and recorded worldwide.[22] As a composer, he led a return to an emphasis on melody, observed critic John S. Wilson: for a long time, jazz musicians had written contrafacts of great technical complexity, but "Silver wrote originals that were not only actually original but memorably melodic, presaging a gradual return to melodic creativity among writing jazzmen."[121]
Discography
Notes
- ^ According to Silver, his father's surname was originally "Silva", but was changed upon marriage to "Silver", while his own baptismal name was "Horace Ward Silver", which then had his father's middle name added, as well as "Martin" upon his Catholic confirmation, making him Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver.[1]
- ^ This account of his father's early life is widely reported. The U.S. census of 1930 gives his name as "John M. Silva" and his birthplace as "Porto [Puerto] Rico".[4]
References
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 3.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Atkins, Ronald (June 19, 2014). "Horace Silver Obituary". The Guardian.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 1–2.
- ^ "John M Silva – United States Census, 1930". FamilySearch. Retrieved January 5, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g Keepnews, Peter (June 18, 2014). "Horace Silver, 85, Master of Earthy Jazz, Is Dead". The New York Times.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 2.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 2–3.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 8–9.
- ^ a b c d Gallo, Phil (June 19, 2014). "Horace Silver Dies: Hard Bop Jazz Icon Dead at 85". Billboard.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 12–13.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 51.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 121c.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 18–19.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 18–20.
- ^ Morgenstern, Dan (July 1960). "The Rumors and the Facts". Down Beat. Reproduced at The Hardbop Homepage.
- ^ Cook 2003, p. 54.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 22–23.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 197.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 45–46.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 46.
- ^ Shipton 2001, pp. 669–671.
- ^ a b c d e f McDonough, John (September 2014). "Horace Silver". Down Beat. 81 (9): 49.
- ^ a b Shipton 2001, p. 670.
- ^ Shipton 2001, pp. 489, 670.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 202–207.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 147.
- ^ "Newport Jazz Festival: 60 Years Young". Down Beat. July 29, 2014. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015.
- ^ Owens 1996, p. 153.
- ^ Shipton 2001, pp. 673, 679.
- ^ Shipton 2001, pp. 672–673.
- ^ Chilton, Martin (June 19, 2014). "Horace Silver, Pioneer of Jazz Hard Bop, Dies at 85". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022.
- ^ Cook & Morton 2008, pp. 132–133, 1298–1299.
- ^ Shipton 2001, p. 679.
- ^ a b c d e f g Stewart, Jocelyn Y. (June 18, 2014). "Horace Silver Dies at 85; Pioneering Jazz Pianist and Composer". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Shipton 2001, pp. 671, 674.
- ^ Cook 2003, p. 101.
- ^ a b Shipton 2001, p. 680.
- ^ "Art Blakey, Horace Silver Now at the PAD". New York Amsterdam News. December 29, 1956. p. 2.
- ^ Lees, Gene (1994). Cats of Any Color: Jazz Black and White. Oxford University Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-19-508448-1.
- ^ a b Silver 2006, pp. 90–91.
- ^ a b c d Myers, Marc (June 19, 2014). "Horace Silver (1928–2014)". JazzWax. Archived from the original on June 22, 2014.
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Horace Silver Quintet / Horace Silver: 6 Pieces of Silver". AllMusic. Retrieved November 26, 2021.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 207–218.
- ^ Huey, Steve. "Horace Silver Quintet – Finger Poppin' with the Horace Silver Quintet". AllMusic. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
- ^ "Horace Silver Will Tour Japan Starting on Jan. 1". Chicago Daily Defender. November 27, 1961. p. 16.
- ^ "Silver at Jazz Gallery". Pittsburgh Courier. February 17, 1962. p. A19.
- ^ a b Cook & Morton 2008, p. 1299.
- ^ Shipton 2001, pp. 681–682.
- ^ Jurek, Thom. "Blue Note Records Catalog: 45 rpm 1700 Series". jazzdisco.org. AllMusic. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
- ^ Jurek, Thom. "Horace Silver – Silver's Serenade". AllMusic. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
- ^ a b Tiegel, Eliot (May 21, 1966). "The Jazz Beat". Billboard. Vol. 78, no. 21. p. 8.
- ^ McMillan, Allan (March 7, 1964). "On Broadway". New Pittsburgh Courier. p. 17.
- ^ a b Garland, Phyl (February 13, 1965). "Listening In: Friends of the Turntable". New Pittsburgh Courier. p. 17.
- ^ a b "Horace Silver Dies". grammy.com. June 18, 2014.
- ^ Huey, Steve. "Horace Silver – The Jody Grind". AllMusic. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
- ^ Owens 1996, pp. 221–222.
- ^ "U.S. Jazz Stars to Tour Europe". The New York Times. October 20, 1968. p. 85.
- ^ Atkins, Ronald (November 23, 1968). "The Horace Silver Quintet". The Guardian. p. 6.
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Horace Silver – You Gotta Take a Little Love". AllMusic. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
- ^ a b Nolan, Herb (September 13, 1973). "Horace Silver: In Pursuit". Down Beat. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 122–123.
- ^ a b Silver 2006, p. 126.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 127–130.
- ^ Wynn, Ron. "Horace Silver – That Healin' Feelin'". AllMusic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 134–135.
- ^ Nolan, Herb (June 1, 1973). "Mike Brecker: Music Is What I Do!". Down Beat. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015.
- ^ "Dave Liebman – NEA Jazz Master (2011)" (PDF). Smithsonian National Museum of American History. January 4–5, 2011.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 124–125.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 136–137.
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Horace Silver – Silver 'n Brass". AllMusic. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
- ^ a b Wilson, John S. (June 10, 1977). "Jazz: Back to Hard Bop with Horace Silver's Quintet". The New York Times. p. 72.
- ^ Wynn, Ron. "Tom Harrell". AllMusic. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
- ^ Wilson, John S. (April 5, 1979). "Jazz: Silver's Quintet". The New York Times. p. C20.
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Horace Silver – Silver 'n Strings Play the Music of the Spheres". AllMusic. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
- ^ Goldberg, Joe (January 16, 1999). "Unburied Treasure". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 3. pp. B8.
- ^ a b Silver 2006, p. 139.
- ^ Hamilton, Ed (June 19, 2014). "Horace Silver: Blue Note Records and His Lady Music". AllAboutJazz.
- ^ "Horace Silver: The Undaunted Artist". New York Amsterdam News. October 30, 1982. p. B13.
- ^ a b Wilson, John S. (February 20, 1981). "With Horace Silver, His Piano and His Memories". The New York Times. p. C17.
- ^ Joyce, Mike (August 10, 1984). "Silver's Music Is the Best Message". The Washington Post. p. WK39.
- ^ a b Atkins, Ronald (July 12, 1985). "Some Tarnished Silver". The Guardian. p. 12.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 237–238.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 238.
- ^ Atkins, Ronald (May 6, 1987). "Horace Silver". The Guardian. p. 9.
- ^ a b Douglas, Dave (October 20, 2014). "Dave Douglas: What He Learned from Horace Silver". JazzTimes.
- ^ Atkins, Ronald (July 12, 1996). "Jazz CD of the Week: Horace Silver". The Guardian. p. A15.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 239.
- ^ Atkins, Clarence (May 29, 1993). "New York Welcomes JVC Festival Jazz Giants". New York Amsterdam News. p. 29.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 153–154.
- ^ Malone, Andrew Lindemann (January–February 2004). "Horace Silver – Rachin' Around". JazzTimes.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 142–143.
- ^ a b Yanow, Scott. "Horace Silver – It's Got to Be Funky". AllMusic. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ Bogle, Dick (September 8, 1993). "Dick's Picks: It's Got to Be Funky". The Skanner. p. 11.
- ^ a b Woodard, Josef (January–February 1998). "Horace Silver: Feeling Healing". JazzTimes.
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Horace Silver – Pencil Packin' Papa". AllMusic. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ Yanow, Scott. "Dee Dee Bridgewater – Love and Peace". AllMusic. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
- ^ "DownBeat Hall of Fame". Down Beat. December 1, 2012.
- ^ "Honorary Degree Recipients". Berklee College of Music. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
- ^ Silver 2006, pp. 241–242.
- ^ "39th Annual Grammy Awards: Final Nominations". Billboard. Vol. 109, no. 3. January 18, 1997. pp. 84–85.
- ^ a b c "Horace Silver – Obituary". The Daily Telegraph. June 19, 2014. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022.
- ^ a b c Owens 1996, p. 221.
- ^ Ouellette, Dan (May 29, 2004). "Jazz Notes". Billboard. Vol. 116, no. 22. p. 29.
- ^ a b La Rosa, David (June 18, 2014). "Piano Legend Horace Silver Has Passed Away". The Jazz Line.
- ^ Scott, Ron (June 26, 2014). "Innovative Jazz Pianist Horace Silver Dies". New York Amsterdam News. p. 19..
- ^ "Chart Beat". Billboard. Vol. 120, no. 8. February 23, 2008. p. 55.
- ^ McBride, Christian (March 22, 2007). "The McBride Diaries (Vol.22)". christianmcbride.com. Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2016.
- ^ Whitehead, Kevin (June 20, 2014) "Remembering Horace Silver, Hard Bop Pioneer". wfdd.org.
- ^ a b Cook & Morton 2008, p. 1298.
- ^ a b c Cook 2003, p. 55.
- ^ Owens 1996, pp. 155–156.
- ^ a b Owens 1996, p. 154.
- ^ a b c Owens 1996, p. 155.
- ^ Talbott, Chris (June 20, 2014). "Horace Silver Dead: Pioneering Jazz Pianist Dies at 85". Huffingtonpost.com.
- ^ Gioia 2012, p. 384.
- ^ Gioia 2012, pp. 331–332.
- ^ Williams, Martin T. (1993). Jazz Changes. Oxford University Press. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-19-505847-5.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 166.
- ^ Silver 2006, p. 167.
- ^ a b Dobbins, Bill. "Silver, Horace". Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
- ^ Wilson, John S. (1959). The Collector's Jazz – Modern. J. B. Lippincott. p. 271.
Bibliography
- Cook, Richard (2003). Blue Note Records: The Biography. Justin, Charles & Co. ISBN 978-1-932112-10-8.
- Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-103401-0.
- Gioia, Ted (2012). The Jazz Standards – A Guide to the Repertoire. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.
- Owens, Thomas (1996). Bebop – The Music and Its Players. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510651-0.
- Shipton, Alyn (2001). A New History of Jazz. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-4754-8.
- Silver, Horace (2006). Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-25392-6.
Further reading
- Silver, Horace (1995). The Art of Small Jazz Combo Playing. Hal Leonard.ISBN 978-0-7935-5688-5.
External links
- Horace Silver Discography at the Hard Bop Home Page
- Listening In: An Interview with Horace Silver by Bob Rosenbaum, Los Angeles, December 1981 (PDF file)
- "The Dozens: Twelve Essential Horace Silver Recordings" by Bill Kirchner