The Best of Horace Silver, Vol. 1

Performer: Horace Silver
Engineer: Rudy Van Gelder
Producer: Alfred Lion
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: A collection of recordings from 1953 to 1959, from Horace Silver's early trio (with Percy Heath and Art Blakey) to the first recordings of his quintet with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor and Louis Hayes (and later Roy Brooks). The first 6 tracks are mono; all others are stereo. Personnel includes: Horace Silver (piano); Percy Heath (bass), Kenny Dorham (trumpet), Donald Byrd (trumpet), Junior Cook (tenor saxophone), Blue Mitchell (trumpet), Gene Taylor (bass), Louis Hayes (drums), Art Farmer (trumpet) and Teddy Kotick (bass). The best jazz artists have a sculptural quality to their playing; Horace Silver, like Thelonious Monk, somehow clears the air when he touches the piano. These are some of Silver's most swinging pieces. The brilliantly catchy blues "Opus De Funk" features Art Blakey and Percy Heath backing Silver's idiosyncratically stiff eighth notes. "Doodlin'" showcases his pungent horn arrangements, while tunes like the gospel-tinged "The Preacher" effortlessly combine accessibility with integrity, something Silver has consistently done over his long career. The Latin funk of "Senor Blues" prefigures jazz fusion by decades. Silver's piano playing, as always, is outstanding and original, his solos consistently exuding intelligence.

Pianist and composer Horace Silver was, along with Art Blakey, one of the primary instigators of the hard-bop jazz movement of the 1950s. Silver turned a limited piano technique to his advantage, welding simple but memorable phrases to driving, muscular rhythms, molding a style whose influence has only grown stronger with the years.

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