Today, September 2nd, we celebrate the life and times of Horace Silver (born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva, September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014); an African-American jazz pianist and composer. Silver is known for his distinctive playing style and pioneering compositional contributions to hard bop. He was influenced by a wide range of musical styles, notably gospel music, African music, and Latin American music, and sometimes ventured into the soul jazz genre. When Horace Silver once wrote out his rules for musical composition (in the liner notes to the 1968 record, Serenade to a Soul Sister), he expounded on the importance of meaningful simplicity. The pianist could have just as easily been describing his own life. For more than fifty years, Silver has simply written some of the most enduring tunes in jazz while performing them in a distinctively personal style. Its all been straight forward enough, while decades of incredible experiences have provided the meaning. Silver was born in Norwalk, Connecticut. His father had immigrated to the United States from Cape Verde---and that island nations Portuguese influences would play a big part in Silvers own music later on. When Silver was a teenager, he began playing both piano and saxophone while he listened to everything from boogie-woogie and blues to such modern musicians as Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. As Silvers piano trio was working in Hartford, Connecticut, the group received saxophonist Stan Getzs attention in 1950. The saxophonist brought the band on the road and recorded three of Silvers compositions. In 1951, Silver moved to New York City where he accompanied saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and many other legends. In the following year, he met the executives at Blue Note while working as a sideman for saxophonist Lou Donaldson. This meeting led to Silver signing with the label where he would remain until 1980. He also collaborated with Art Blakey in forming the Jazz Messengers during the early 1950s (which Blakey would continue to lead after Silver formed his own quintet in 1956). During these years, Silver helped create the rhythmically forceful branch of jazz known as hard bop (chronicled in David H. Rosenthals 1992 book, Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965). He based much of his own writing on blues and gospel---the latter is particularly prominent on one of his biggest tunes, The Preacher. While his compositions at this time featured surprising tempo shifts and a range of melodic ideas, they immediately caught the attention of a wide audience. Silvers own piano playing easily shifted from aggressively percussive to lushly romantic within just a few bars. At the same time, his sharp use of repetition was funky even before that word could be used in polite company. Along with Silvers own work, his bands often featured such rising jazz stars as saxophonists Junior Cook and Hank Mobley, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and drummer Louis Hayes. Some of his key albums from this period included Horace Silver Trio (1953), Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers (1955), Six Pieces of Silver (1956) and Blowin The Blues Away (1959), which includes his famous, Sister Sadie. He also combined jazz with a sassy take on pop through the 1961 hit, Filthy McNasty. But it was a few years later when Silver would record one of his most famous songs, the title track to his 1964 album, Song For My Father. That piece combined his dads take on Cape Verdean folk music (with a hint of Brazilian Carnival rhythms) into an enduring F-minor jazz composition. Over the years, it has become an American popular music standard, covered not only by scores of instrumentalists, but also such singers as James Brown. As social and cultural upheavals shook the nation during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Silver responded to these changes through music. He commented directly on the new scene through a trio of records called United States of Mind (1970-1972) that featured the spirited vocals of Andy Bey. The composer got deeper into cosmic philosophy as his group, Silver N Strings, recorded Silver N Strings Play The Music of the Spheres (1979). After Silvers long tenure with Blue Note ended, he continued to create vital music. The 1985 album, Continuity of Spirit (Silveto), features his unique orchestral collaborations. In the 1990s, Silver directly answered the urban popular music that had been largely built from his influence on Its Got To Be Funky (Columbia, 1993). On Jazz Has A Sense of Humor (Verve, 1998), he shows his younger group of sidemen the true meaning of the music. In July 2007 his autobiography Lets Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver was published by University of California Press. Reviewing the book for JazzTimes, Lee Mergner said, .. this autobiography ... contains some excellent primary source material on the genesis of modern jazz. Silver’s founding of the Jazz Messengers and his influential recordings for Blue Note ensure his special place in jazz history... During the ’50s when bebop and drug abuse went hand in hand, Silver was a veritable paragon of clean living, and that disparity helps to explain his professional disconnect from many of the players of that period. But, Mergner goes on: Silvers account of his life and career post-1970 is less captivating for the average jazz fan, in part because he was less active as a recording artist and also because he is most preoccupied with explaining his unique blend of spirituality and metaphysics—not that there’s anything wrong with psychic experiences, mediums, astrology and dowsing. Silver died of natural causes in New Rochelle, New York on June 18, 2014. He was 85. He was survived by his son, Gregory.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 05:17:11 +0000
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