Horace Silver

Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver ( born September 2, 1928 in Norwalk, Connecticut), actually Silva, is an American jazz pianist and composer.

Life and work

Silver began as a tenor saxophonist ( with Lester Young as an example ), but then moved by Graham Forbes, with whom he was friends, to the piano. In 1950 he was discovered by Stan Getz at a club in Hartford, Connecticut, and went with his trio on tour. With Getz he also made ​​his first recording. In 1951 he moved to New York where he producers of Blue Note Records struck in the jam sessions on Monday evening. 1952 and 1953 he took there with own trio, which also includes Art Blakey was one with which he shared the Jazz Messengers founded (first recording under this name in 1954 ), a formation that stylistic influence in the development of hard bop had. Horace Silver's style is characterized by a percussive way of playing with driving funky rhythms and striking melodies. He became famous for his interpretations of most of his own works in very rhythmically precise arrangements and his colorful style.

Formally, he has known how to extend the basic structure of the Bebop " in a special way " by writing 12 -bar blues and 8 -bar song forms combined with each other or subjects with an odd number of cycles. This outbreak from the conventional schemes Silver has not started as the first, but to pursue its action to the rock music. Silver was his successful albums of the Blue Note - Stars and received from its founder Alfred Lion considerable freedom ( to the design of the cover and liner notes ).

Silver was influenced by many styles of music, particularly through gospel, African music and Latin American music. Latter brings Silver already from his family background with - he has, with Irish and African roots, his family is from Cape Verde, where she felt the " Portugese " belonging. Silver was not only a hard bop pioneer, but also one of the founders of soul-jazz. He was, inter alia, the composer of the pieces "Sister Sadie ," " Filthy McNasty ," " Tokyo Blues", "Song for My Father " (written for his coming from the Cape Verde Islands father) and " Señor Blues" and v. Others, who advanced to become jazz standards.

Silver played until the late 1950s with many jazz greats, including Lester Young, Clark Terry, Miles Davis, Kenny Clarke, Milt Jackson, Kenny Burrell and Cannonball Adderley. Since then he has played nurmehr ( almost) exclusively with his own band. After his time with the Jazz Messengers in 1956 he founded a private hard bop quintet, were promoted in the similar Blakey young talent like Hank Mobley, Louis Hayes, Junior Cook, Blue Mitchell, Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, and Michael and Randy Brecker. The composition had his quintet (tenor saxophone, trumpet, rhythm section with piano) in the 1960s as a model for many jazz combos. Since the early 1950s, active, Horace Silver looks back on a more than fifty -year-long successful career.

Quote

"What is jazz music but another language? " What is Jazz different from another language?

Compositions (selection )

• Doodlin '
• Ecaroh
• Filthy McNasty
• Jungle Juice
• Moonrays
• Nica 's Dream
• Nutville
• Opus de Funk
• Peace
• The Preacher
• Psychedelic Sally
• Quicksilver
• Safari
• Señor Blues
• Sister Sadie
• Song for My Father

Discography (selection)

• Horace Silver Trio ( Blue Note, 1953)
• Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers ( Blue Note, 1954)
• Six Pieces of Silver ( Blue Note, 1956)
• Finger Poppin ' ( Blue Note, 1959)
• Blowin 'the Blues Away ( Blue Note, 1959)
• Horace -Scope ( Blue Note, 1960)
• The Tokyo Blues ( Blue Note, 1962)
• Song for My Father ( Blue Note, 1964)
• The Cape Verdean Blues ( Blue Note, 1965)
• The Jody Grind ( Blue Note, 1966)
• Serenade to a Soul Sister ( Blue Note, 1968)
• You Gotta Take A Little Love ( Blue Note, 1969)
• In Pursuit of the 27th Man ( Blue Note, 1972)
• Jazz Has a Sense of Humor ( Verve, 1999)