A History Of Blue Note Records: 1952

Horace Silver Trio – October 9 1952

Richard Cook - Blue Note Records – Secker and Warburg 2001 pp 54

If one artist exemplifies Blue Note’s music, it must be Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver. He was born in Newark, Connecticut, in 1928, of a Portuguese father and an American mother. He took up piano at ten – a spinal condition obliged him to give up on his saxophone-playing ambitions – and after deciding to make a go of being a musician, he worked mostly in his local area, especially Hartford. Stan Getz hired him in 1950 – their early recordings for Roost, another jazz independent, are marvellous for their fast, exciting synthesis of the bop and cool languages – and he made his debut and eventually his home in New York. Then he ran into Lou Donaldson, who remembered: ‘I used to go to a little studio called Nuby’s on 116th Street. You could rent a rehearsal room for fifty cents. Horace and I met there, and we played and got friendly. Both of us were trying to learn how to play bebop. Then we got together with Art Blakey and Gene Ramey and worked up some tunes and got some little gigs here and there.’

Richard Havers - Uncompromising Expression (Thames and Hudson) p82

Pianist Horace Silver had just celebrated his 24th birthday when he recorded with bassist Gene Ramey and Art Blakey. After saxophonist Stan Getz had discovered Silver in a club in Hartford, Connecticut, he took him on the road and into the recording studio for the first time in 1950. Lion and Silver first met at Birdland where the pianist had a Monday-night spot, and Lion gave Silver his first session with Lou Donaldson before letting him have one of his own. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between the pianist and the label that lasted until the late 1970s.

Michael Cuscuna – The Blue Note Photos of Francis Wolff – Flammarion

Horace Silver’s first session was to have been a Lou Donaldson quartet date that Lou had to cancel at the last minute to go out of town. Alfred [Lion] thought it was time for Silver to make his debut anyway and offered him the same date as his own trio session.

Horace Silver – Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty – University of California Press p78-9

AFTER HE HEARD LOU DONALDSON play at one of the jam sessions at the Paradise Bar, Alfred Lion of Blue Note Records engaged Lou to do a quartet session for him. Alfred was always hanging out on the jazz scene, searching for great new talent. Lou engaged me to play piano on the session. I did a second session with Lou for Blue Note Records that started out as a quartet. But someone brought Blue Mitchell by the session to check us out. Lou knew Blue and dug his playing, so he asked him to play on a few tracks. That was the first time I met Blue.

I was supposed to do a third session with Lou for Blue Note, but three days before the session was scheduled, Alfred called to say that Lou couldn't make the session and to ask whether I could make a trio album for him. Naturally, I accepted. Luckily, I had plenty of material. I was always composing. I had three days to pick the material I wanted to record, get in the woodshed and practice, and get my shit together.

Ran Blake: Horace Silver – The Trio Sides – Liner Notes – BNLA-474-H2 – 1975

The 1950's were rich period for keyboard improvisation, Ray Charles was beginning to create a concoction that mixed gospel, country blues with a contemporary rhythm and blues beat. Cecil Taylor recorded a monumental disc for Transition, Jazz Advance. Bill Evans hit the scene and recorded with The George Russell Workshop, doing his best soloing in my opinion. Most important was the discovery of Thelonious Monk, who had been performing for many years in semi-obscurity. He cut a superb series of albums for Riverside and led an important quartet which included saxophonist John Coltrane. It was during this decade that Horace Silver emerged and awakened the scene. Here was a piano style that blended many of the ingredients of the Ray Charles style with be-bop, often seasoned with Latin influences, Horace knew how to cook at all temperatures.

Horace Silver grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut, and played baritone saxophone in junior high school; later he played tenor. But Horace didn't ignore the piano. He studied with the late organist William Schofield. According to classmate Sgt, Ernie Muro, now a flutist with the West Point Band, Horace was outgoing, personable and even then committed to music. Before the late forties, Horace appeared under the sponsorship of the USO at several Veteran's Hospitals on the East Coast with Bob Santo. Attorney Frank Zullo, former Mayor of Norwalk, recollected over ten years later, that Horace Silver was considered the ultimate authority on chord changes. In the summer of 1969, Norwalk celebrated a Horace Silver Day and Horace was presented with the key to the city.

His first major turning point was the moment when Stan Getz caught him at the Sundown, a small club on Windsor Street in Hartford, Connecticut. Horace was playing with the Ray Beller Quintet which included bassist Joe Gallaway and Walter Boland on drums.

In the vicinity of the Elks Club a host of Hartford's finest improvisers, such as pianist Norman Macklin, tenor saxophonist Bobby Johnson, bassist Ernie Wilson constantly performed. This club was within spitting distance from the Sundown. For a long time Horace could be heard in both clubs. According to Norman Macklin, there was a marked change in his playing after 1950. He played fewer notes. Stan Getz engaged Horace as well as Boland and Galloway for work in New York. Sides were cut, many of which can be heard on "The Best of Stan Getz — Echoes of an Era", Roulette RE 119. Horace Silver's introduction on Gigi Gryce's "Wildwood" gives the best foretaste of the mature Silver style. The sides which include Horace were cut in 1950-1951.

Horace Silver
Photo by Francis Wolff

Of paramount importance is Horace Silver's ability to strip away non-essentials, such as the semi-cocktail ornamentations that so many "jazz" pianists delight in using. With the exception of a few early ballads, the Silver style is uncluttered by these conventions. I don't mean to imply that all his ideas are top-drawer; for instance, many musical quotes thrown into an otherwise fine if not remarkable line are a strong irritant. The solos that succeed least are marred by a momentary lack of inspiration, an inferior choice of notes but not by pointless digressions that so many pianist's right hand's find irresistible.

In the January 1976 "Contemporary Keyboard", Len Lyons describes Silver as "a conspicuously physical and highly unorthodox pianist who slouches on the bench, sways his shoulders and claws the keyboard, attacking each note with his whole body, His technique is enough to give a classical teacher nightmares, but there is no denying that he swings with all the precision of a tightly wound metronome."

"Claws the keyboard" and the "precision of a tightly wound metronome" are accurate appraisals and should not be too easily dismissed. The energy with which Silver erupts is often greater than the content of ideas.

'Thou Swell", the Richard Rodgers song from the neglected musical, "A Connecticut Yankee", follows. His solo has youthful energy but the lack of silence is like unpunctuated paragraphs.

Many people feel that rapping about form and meter overintellectualizes the improvisers original intention. However, a piece of music such as "Horoscope", with its clearly defined sections is an excellent starting point for students who wish to delve into the very rich tradition of Afro-American music. Below appears a plan for the first chorus. The chorus can be divided into 2 or 3 sections, There is an A section which is made up of a 6 bar group of phrases of 2 bars each, followed by a 2 bar vamp. I've indicated in the right column the chords for these three 2 bar motives; x refers to a dominant flavored chord. Then follows a B section divided into two 4 bar passages which consists of a new melody and a 4 bar vamp, Some of you may wish to consider the vamp its very own section, thus making it the C section, The vamp has been heard earlier as the introduction, I A a2 upward skip followed by three descending notes„ Imaj, — bVlx
a2 upward skip followed by three descending notes. Imaj, — bVlx V- Vx
a2 upward skip followed by three descending notes. Imaj. — bVlx V- Ix a2 vamp

B c4 melodic figure
d (usually) 4 vamp introduction

Note that Horace Silver uses material from the first improvised chorus three choruses later.

The simplicity of "Horoscope", admittingly uncomplex if compared to George Russell and Duke Ellington, is deceptive. Ingenious are the 7th and 8th bar vamps that appear in the A section, So many of Horace Silver's irregularly constructed (number of bars per section) compositions are important because they have created improvising challenges for Silver's horn players throughout the years. 'Horoscope", relatively orthodox, contains a puzzle or two.

Michael Cuscuna – Senor Blues Liner Notes BNJ-61005 1984

From October of 1952 to November of 1979, Horace Silver was, with one exception, an exclusive Blue Note recording artist. In fact, his sound came to epitomize Blue Note in the fifties and sixties. And in those 27 years, he created a great body of musical works, many of which are now considered classic performances and standards.

This album compliments and completes his output during the 1500 series years. Horace's first trio session on October 9, 1952, happened quite by accident. This was to be another Lou Donaldson quartet date, but the saxophonist had to cancel out a few days before. Alfred Lion asked Horace if he would like to keep the studio and the sidemen and make his first recordings as leader. Being very serious and meticulous about his music, he took the plunge, but worked feverishly to compose, prepare and rehearse the music. With such short notice, it became necessary to do half of the 10" album that day and the rest on October 20. A year later, on November 23, he made another 10" trio album.

Most of these titles were later gathered on Blue Note BLP 1520. But for reasons of space, four of the original selections were left off. They are included here. "Thou Swell" from the first date has an exuberance and fire that are part of Silver's spirit and trademark, but lacks the use of space that characterizes his later work.

Horace Silver
Photo by Francis Wolff

Leonard Feather: Horace Silver – New Faces – New Sounds - Liner Notes - BLP 5018 – 1952

Horace Silver is one of the youngest and most original of the bright new stars on the jazz piano scene. A couple of years ago he was an unknown, playing gigs in and around his native Norwalk, Conn. and in Westchester County. Today, at 24, he is well on his way toward the acquisition of a national following.

Credit for discovering Horace goes to a young artist who already enjoys such a following — Stan Getz. Horace was working in Hartford with his own trio at a club where Stan was to be featured one night as guest star. Al Haig had just left Getz, who was so impressed by Silver's work that he promptly hired the trio intact.

Coincidentally, Horace had been well known locally as a performer on Stan Getz's instrument, the tenor sax, as well as on piano. He had taken piano and saxophone lessons while in high school, and had studied with a church organist in Norwalk. Gradually he found himself taking more jobs at the keyboard and fewer engagements as a tenor man.

Horace's job with Getz, his first big-time professional break, lasted almost a year, after which he remained in New York to get his local union card. Since then he has been a familiar and popular figure around such Manhattan focal points as Birdland, Le Downbeat and the resuscitated Minton's Playhouse, working with the combos of Terry Gibbs, Coleman Hawkins, Oscar Pettiford, back with Stan Getz, and with Bill Harris.

Down Beat 23 March 1953 Volume 20 Issue 6

The young man from Norwalk, Conn., bounds into the top brackets at one swell foop with the six originals and two standards presented here. Silver has much of Bud Powell’s mordant attack and as many intriguing ideas as Monk in the creation of colorful themes. Yeah swings the most, Kiss is the prettiest.

Art Blakey knits tightly with Horace throughout; Curly Russell and Gene Ramey split the diligent bass chores. A must for piano pursuers, and for anyone interested in what Blue Note describes here as New Faces—New Sounds. (Blue Note BLP 5018)