One of Blue Note’s greatest mainstream hard bop dates, Song for My Father is Horace Silver’s signature LP and the peak of a discography already studded with classics. Silver was always a master at balancing jumping rhythms with complex harmonies for a unique blend of earthiness and sophistication, and…

Blowin’ the Blues Away is one of Horace Silver’s all-time Blue Note classics, only upping the ante established on Finger Poppin’ for tightly constructed, joyfully infectious hard bop. This album marks the peak of Silver’s classic quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and…

Horace Silver’s LP Silver’s Serenade is a swan song; it was the final recording with his most famous quintet, which included drummer Roy Brooks, bassist Gene Taylor, saxophonist Junior Cook, and trumpeter Blue Mitchell. The band had made five previous recordings for the label, all of them successful. The…

Following the subtly modern bent of much of The Cape Verdean Blues, Horace Silver recommitted himself to his trademark “funky jazz” sound on The Jody Grind. Yet he also consciously chose to keep a superbly advanced front line, with players like trumpeter Woody Shaw (retained from the Cape Verdean…

Horace-Scope is the third album by Horace Silver’s classic quintet — or most of it, actually, as drummer Louis Hayes was replaced by Roy Brooks starting with this session. The rhythmic drive and overall flavor of the group are still essentially the same, though, and Horace-Scope continues the tight,…

This CD reissue has pianist Horace Silver’s first sessions as a leader, trios with drummer Art Blakey and either Gene Ramey, Curly Russell or Percy Heath on bass. Silver already had his funky style pretty well together by 1952 (two years after being discovered by Stan Getz), and the…

A true classic, this CD found pianist Horace Silver and drummer Art Blakey co-leading the Jazz Messengers; Silver would leave a year later to form his own group. Also featuring trumpeter Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley on tenor, and bassist Doug Watkins, this set is most notable for the original…

Finger Poppin’ was the first album Horace Silver recorded with the most celebrated version of his quintet, which featured trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and (this time around) drummer Louis Hayes. It’s also one of Silver‘s all-time classics, perfectly blending the pianist’s advanced, groundbreaking hard bop style with the winning, gregarious…

With their 1956 Blue Note classic 6 Pieces of Silver, the Horace Silver Quintet had helped establish hard bop as the most exciting new direction in jazz in some years. Only two members of that group, saxophonist Junior Cook and drummer Louis Hayes, remained with pianist Silver when the…

For a brief time, tenor saxophonist Clifford Jordan and trumpeter Art Farmer were the frontline of the Horace Silver Quintet. This 1997 CD reissue finds the group (which also includes bassist Teddy Kotick and drummer Louis Hayes) performing five of Silver’s lesser-known originals and the standard “Ill Wind.” The…