AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Horace Silver

Artist:Horace Silver

Song:Cool Eyes

Album:Four Classic Albums

This is another in my series of Jazz for Beginners complete with a performance video and an affordable CD appropriate for beginners. Pianist Horace Silver was a pioneer of bebop. He recorded for Blue Note from 1952 to 1980. I haven't checked but I think that's that's the longest that anyone recorded for Blue Note. Plenty of great jazz musicians started out in Silver's band. Today I'm going to look at his 50s recordings and look at his 60s recordings later. He was born Sept. 2, 1928 in Norwalk, CT. His father was from Cape Verde. Silver took piano lessons as a child. His father taught him the folk music of Cape Verde. Silver got into jazz when he heard Jimmie Lunceford at age 11. His influences include Nat King Cole, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. Silver started out playing tenor sax in the school band. After he was rejected for military duty due to an excessively curved spine, Silver switched to piano and moved to Hartford, CT to take a job as a regular pianist in a nightclub. After Silver's trio backed Stan Getz in a Norwalk club, he took them on tour and they played on one of his albums. After a year, Silver left the band and moved to New York. He joined alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson's band. Donaldson taught Silver bebop and signed with Blue Note. The band was Donaldson, Silver, Gene Ramey on bass and Art Taylor on drums. When Donaldson was unable to make a recording session, Blue Note recorded Silver, Ramey and Art Blakey on drums. That was Silver's 1952 Blue Note debut album New Faces New Sounds. Silver continued to work as a sideman. Then he formed The Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey. After a couple of albums, Silver left The Jazz Messengers as there was a lot of heroin abuse and he didn't want to be involved in that. Silver began recording with his own quintet in 1955. Cool Eyes is from Silver's 1956 album 6 Pieces of Silver. This was his fourth album for Blue Note with a quintet. The band was Donald Byrd on trumpet, Hank Mobley on tenor sax, Doug Watkins on bass and Louis Hayes on drums. This album is available on this Avid 2CD budget comp of four of Silver's albums. Along with 6 Pieces of Silver, there is The Stylings of Silver with Art Farmer on trumpet, Mobley, Teddy Kotick on bass and Hayes, Further Exploration with Farmer, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, Kotick and Hayes and Finger Poppin' with the Horace Silver Quintet with Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor sax, Gene Taylor on bass and Hayes. These four albums were released in that order from 1956-59. The band on Finger Poppin' was Silver's regular band until the 1964 album Song for My Father. And that signified a major change in Silver's music. And as I said, I plan to cover Silver's 60s recordings and the rest of his career in the future. Here's Horace Silver with Red Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor sax, Gene Taylor on bass and Louis Hayes on drums performing Cool Eyes on the Dutch broadcaster KRO 1959.