If you open up a dictionary and look up “Hard Bop”, you’ll likely see a picture of Horace Silver. Along with Art Blakey, Silver essentially invented the classic hard bop quintet of tenor sax, trumpet, piano bass and drums. This 4 disc set contains arguably Horace Silver’s best releases from the years 1952-63, and if you have nothing so far of his material, this is the place to start.
His 1955 Jazz Messenger release with drummer Art Blakey includes Kenny Dorham/tp, Hank Mobley/ts and Doug Watkins/b and it includes the first “funky” jazz tunes that became classics, the gospel’d “The Preacher” and the slinky “Doodlin’”. Next year, trumpeter Don Byrd and drummer Louis Hayes stepped in and recorded another song that has stood the test of time, the relentless “Senor Blues”. Enter bassist Kotick and trumpeter Art Farmer for the next year’s album, and the soulful “Soulville” and fun “Home Cookin’” mix easy backbeats with bopping solos.
1959 was a banner year for Silver, with two sizzling releases with his new team and “first classic” team of Louis Hayes/dr, Blue Mitchell/tp, Junior Cook/ts and Gene Taylor/b, with the team gelling in the studio for the bluesy gospel “Come On Home” and snappy “Cookin’ At The Continental”, and totally hip “Sister Sadie”. Silver also shows his talents in a trio format, debuting his famous “Peace”. A live gig at the Village Gate with Roy Brooks as the latest drummer has the team grooving hard on the riff filled “Filthy McNasty” and the deep rivulet of “Doin’ The Thing”, with another session including the catchy “Silver’s Serenade.” A couple of new drummers, Joe and John Harris, take turns for a Japan-themed album the included the clever “Tokyo Blues”. Silver’s last album with Mitchell and Cook was in ’63, and it included the funky “Sweetie Sweetie Dee” and the infectious “Dragon Lady”. Did music ever get any better than this?