BLP 4185

Horace Silver - Song For My Father

Released - December 1964

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 31, 1963
Blue Mitchell, trumpet #1; Junior Cook, tenor sax #1; Horace Silver, piano; Gene Taylor, bass; Roy Brooks, drums.

tk.1 Calcutta Cutie
tk.5 Lonely Woman

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, October 26, 1964
Carmell Jones, trumpet; Joe Henderson, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Teddy Smith, bass; Roger Humphries, drums.

1454 tk.4 The Kicker
1455 tk.9 Que Pasa
1456 tk.16 The Natives Are Restless Tonight
1457 tk.26 Song For My Father

Session Photos

October 26 1964

Photos: © Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Song for My Father	Horace Silver	October 26 1964
The Natives Are Restless Tonight	Horace Silver	October 26 1964
Calcutta Cutie	Horace Silver	October 31 1963
Side Two
Que Pasa	Horace Silver	October 26 1964
The Kicker	Joe Henderson	October 26 1964
Lonely Woman	Horace Silver	October 31 1963

Liner Notes

THE soulful gentleman with the straw hat and cigar on the cover of this album is John Tavares Silver, to whom the title tune was bilingually dedicated (in English and Portuguese). "My mother was of Irish and Negro descent, my father of Portuguese origin,” says Horace. “He was born on the island of Maio, one of the Cape Verde Islands, but he came to this country when he was a young man.”

Song For My Father involves the conjunction of two eras, in more than one sense. In addition to bringing together two Silver family generations, it presents for the first time on records a new genealogical chapter in the lineage of the Horace Silver Quintet.

It was almost exactly a decade ago, toward the end of 1954, that Horace, then leading a quartet at Minton’s Playhouse with Hank Mobley on tenor and the late Doug Watkins on bass, joined forces with Art Blakey and Kenny Dorham for an LP by “Horace Silver and The Jazz Messengers.” (Blue Note 1518.BLP1518.) This highly successful initial venture produced two Silver compositions that have become firm jazz standards, The Preacher and Doodlin’.

For a year or two Horace remained, except on occasional records, a sideman working for Blakey. Then came the moment of decision: in September 1956 he formed his own group, with Mobley, Donald Byrd, Watkins and Louis Hayes.

There was one major reshuffling in 1958, but generally the five pieces of Silver have remained unusually stable. While other combos changed their size and shape and policy, the Horace Silver Quintet went straight ahead, recording hit after hit, from Juicy Lucy and Sister Sadie to Filthy McNasty and The Tokyo Blues. Not until 1964 did Horace decide on another revamping. “1 feel we’re getting an invigorating freshness with) the new group,” he says, “and we’re working well toward the oneness that comes after being together a while.”

For Carmell Jones, the job with Horace is a major step toward national recognition. Born in 1937 in Kansas City, Kansas, Carmell at 19 left for a two year hitch in the Army. He spent two years at the University of Kansas and took part, in 196O, in the annual collegiate jam festival at Notre Dame. A few months later he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked with Bud Shank, Harold Land, Curtis Amy, Gerald Wilson and Shelly Manne. Though Miles Davis and Chet Baker were early favorites, clearly Carmell’s later discovery of some Clifford Brown records made a lasting impression.

Joe Henderson, though new to the Silver personnel. is of course familiar to Blue Noters, both as leader and sideman. Born April 24, 1937 in Lima, Ohio, he worked with various groups in Detroit, went around the world with an Army band during two years in the service, and arrived in New York in 1962.

The new rhythm men arc less familiar. Roger Humphries is one of the most promising drummers I’ve heard in a long time,” says Horace. “He’s only 20 years old, comes from Pittsburgh, and this is his second professional job. He was just out of high school when be joined Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine. Teddy Smith is a little older, in his early thirties. He comes from Washington and worked with Slide Hampton’s band and a lot of combos around Washington. D.C. He’s a fine timekeeper with a good sound. I’m real happy with the rhythm section.”

Of the title number, Horace says: “This tune is an original of mine, but it has a flavor to it that makes me think of my childhood days. Some of the family, including my father and my uncle, used to have musical parties with three or four stringed instruments; my father played violin and guitar. Those were happy, informal sessions.

Then of course last February 1 was in Brazil and I was very much impressed by the authentic bossa nova beat. Not just the monotonous tick-tick-tick, tick.tick, way it’s usually done, but the real bossa nova feeling, which I've tried to incorporate into this number.”

The them has an even, placid quality. It is in F Minor and its mood is plaintive rather than mournful. Horace’s piano solo is restrained, with a touch of the blues in the chordal work, and Joe’s solo swings effortlessly.

The Natives tire Restless Tonight, a bright minor blues, offers a kicking demonstration of Carmell’s fluidity, poke and drive. Note, too, how carefully Roger Humphries seems to be listening to what Carmell is saying. Joe Henderson’s solo is notable for its fine time, an element particularly important at this tempo. Horace’s comping, that very personal comping that has always been a central part of the group’s value, lends greatly to the tension and excitement. Smith and Humphries both have solo statements before the theme returns.

CaIcutta Cutie was recorded with the earlier personnel, but the horns are heard only in brief ensemble work. “I wanted this to have that Indian flavor, like in The Baghdad Blues. My own solo, using those minor thirds with the seconds on the bottom, reminds me a little of someone strumming away on a guitar.” Notice Roy Brooks’ use of finger cymbal effects, and Horace’s alternation of a sort of misterioso style (using broken open fifths, if you want to be technical) with a fleet-single notes linearity. This splendid composition holds the attention all the way to the concluding lonely—sounding double-stop by Gene Taylor.

Que Pasa, or What’s Happening’ is a brooding theme expressed by the two-horn voicing of the ensemble. “‘The bass,” Horace points out, “plays just D Flat and A Flat all the way. but the chords move from D Flat minor through G 7, F 7 and D 7 back to the D Flat Minor.” Horace’s solo and Joe’s have much in common here, for both range from a gentle reserve to unpredictably aggressive moments. Humphries underlines these contrasts most effectively.

The Kicker, an up-tempo line by Joe Henderson. is the only non-Silver composition in this album. The kicker in question is a jagged series of short phrases used to kick off the first two choruses in each of the solos. Composer Henderson himself, an increasingly impressive soloist, kicks most effectively in his own blowing contribution. Carmell’s phrasing and continuity are exceptional; in this solo alone there are perhaps half a dozen phrases, any one of which could be used as the basis for a formal melody. This is as it should be, since all improvisation is, or should be, basically a form of composition.

Lonely Woman, played as a solo with bass and drums, was written some years ago before Horace knew there was any other composition with the sae name. (Benny Carter wrote a lovely tune by this title in 1937.) 1 have replayed this track often and find it more endearing each time. It is lyrical in the musical sense, and also in the sense that you an easily imagine lyrics fitted to its sinuous lines. (The fifth and sixth measures seem to cry I’m such a lonely woman . . .)

I do not know John Tavares Silver, but hope we will meet. It would be a pleasure to know the man to whom this album is dedicated. He must be a proud man — not merely proud of the dedication, but of a gifted son who is respected by thousand of friends and admirers all over the world.

—LEONARD FEATHER

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT SONG FOR MY FATHER

This album, the most popular in the lengthy Blue Note career of Horace Silver, is also the most oddly assembled. Silver was one of the most efficient jazz artists of the period. He had a knack for producing well balanced, conceptually coherent programs of 12-inch album length; and, given his extensive output, he left amazingly few alternate or unissued performances. Song For My Father had more of a cut-and-paste appearance, with four titles recorded in October 1964 by a new Horace Silver quintet, plus a quintet and trio track made a year earlier.

A jumble of this type, while not unheard of at Blue Note, was hardly Horacian. It indicates the transitional nature of 1964 for the Silver quintet, which had functioned with the same Blue Mitchell-Junior Cook frontline plus Gene Taylor on bass for over five years, while Roy Brooks had held the drum chair for over four years. The dissolution of this classic edition of Silver's quintet led to what ultimately became two rethinkings of the Blue Note LP that would follow the beautiful (and still surprisingly underrated) Silver's Seranade.Thanks to the efforts of reissue producer Michael Cuscuna, whose input here and on numerous other occasions make him the Boswell to Alfred Lion's Dr. Johnson, the complete musical picture surrounding Song For My Father began to emerge in the late '70s. Thanks to compact disc technology, we have been able to hear all of the surrounding music that Silver deems acceptable for release, and can thus make better sense of the story.

This album was originally intended to be a program by the Mitchell/Cook band designed to feature Silver's piano. Recording commenced on Halloween, 1963, in a session that produced "Calcutta Cutie," "Lonely Woman," "Sanctimonious Sam" and the trio version of "Que Pasa?" While the first two tracks were ultimately included on the original Song For My Father album, the latter two were not released until 1979, after Cuscuna and Silver had combed the Blue Note archives for enough material to assemble the new-to-LP volume Sterling Silver, The waltz "Sanctimonious Sam" is the work of tenor saxophonist Musa Kaleem, who contributed solos and two compositions to Art Blakey's first Blue Note session in 1947 (where the drummer led an octet called Art Blakey's Messengers) and who had become friendly with Silver after sending the pianist an arrangement of Mitchell, Cook, Taylor and Brooks made what turned out to be their final visit to Rudy Van Gelder's studio as members of the Horace Silver Quintet on January 28, 1964. The intent was to complete the album that had been started three months earlier, and three additional tunes were attempted; but Silver was dissatisfied and none were issued at the time. ("Sighin' And Cryin"' made its debut on Sterling Silver, "Silver Threads Among My Soul" first surfaced on the 1989 CD reissue of Song For My Father, and the third title in Cuscuna's words "did not make it to the master take stage.") Silver recalled to Cuscuna that Alfred Lion commented during the session that it might be time for Silver to assemble a new band — a suggestion that does not appear to indicate any loss of respect on Lion's part for Silver's longtime sidemen who, Brooks excepted, he would continue to record under Blue Mitchell's name.

Silver took Lion's advice and hired Carmel Jones, Joe Henderson, Teddy Smith and Roger Humphries for the new Horace Silver Quintet by late Spring 1964. This wholesale personnel change effectively put the album that was to have emerged from the October '63 and January '64 sessions on the shelf. A live recording by the new band was planned for an August engagement at Pep's in Philadelphia, perhaps because the longer takes that emerged from a club setting would compensate for the band not having an album's worth of previously unrecorded material under its belt. "The Natives Are Restless Tonight," "Que Pasa?" and "The Kicker" were already in the book, however, and scheduled for the live recording; but that attempt to make an album proved even less satisfying than the January date with the old band. Silver recalled part of the problem stemming from Carmell Jones, an overly sensitive musician still getting acclimated to both the band and the East Coast jazz scene. Some conversation at the bar during the matinee performance on the order of "Let's see if this West Coast guy can really play" got at the trumpeter, and ensured that Plan B for the next Horace Silver album would also be scrapped.

The charmed third plan was consummated on October 1964, nearly a year after Silver had embarked on the production of a new album, when the revamped quintet recorded four titles at Van Gelder's. All three tunes scheduled for the aborted album were taped, as well as a fourth Silver composition inspired by the currently popular bossa nova rhythm of Brazilian music and dedicated to the composers father, who was born in the Cape Verdean islands. Alfred Lion, no doubt sensing that "Song For My Father" had enormous commercial potential, and undoubtedly feeling that a new Horace Silver album was long overdue, did not wait for the new band to return and tape additional material. He added the two most atmospheric performances from the October 1963 date to obtain a full LP, while his partner Francis Wolff shot a wonderful cover portrait of John Tavares Silver.

Song For My Father turned out to be a triumph for both the leader and Joe Henderson, who did two things here that are indicative of his contributions to various Blue Note sessions of the period. He brought in a great original, "The Kicker' which he would also record three years later on the Milestone album of the same name; and he blew a solo on the title track that stole the show. Efforts of this quality explain why Henderson, like Silver, came to be viewed as one of the definitive Blue Note artists.

- Bob Blumenthal, 1999

Blue Note Spotlight - January 2021

http://www.bluenote.com/spotlight/horace-silver-song-for-my-father/

One of the most indelible tunes in the jazz canon, Horace Silver’s “Song for My Father,” recorded on October 26, 1964 for the album that bears the same name, could have become an AM Top 40 radio hit had the powers to be back then delved deeper beyond the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Motown to find rich sources of beguiling song. In fact, a decade later, the pop group Steely Dan lifted the catchy bass lines from “Song for My Father” for its own song “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” (from its 1974 album Pretzel Logic), which reached the upper echelon of the pop singles chart—testament to Silver’s brilliance as a songwriter whose appealing tunes over the course of his career have been fully recognized as lyrical, whimsical gems.

While the pianist and bandleader recorded exclusively for Blue Note Records beginning in 1956 after he left the Jazz Messengers (the seminal band he co-founded with drummer Art Blakey) until 1979, Song for My Father stands as the milestone of his oeuvre not only for its snappy songs (most originals, no songbook standards) but also for its top-tier ensemble interplay. Silver’s pianism is unmistakable in its percussive bounce, with his light pounce on the keys fashioning chords that contribute to the hard bop rhythm. While he wasn’t a flashy virtuoso of the instrument, he was a charismatic craftsman whose mesmerizing songs afford his band mates ample room to improvise with brio.

The six songs presented on the original LP release of Silver’s most celebrated album were recorded by two different ensembles in sessions that took place a year apart, from October 1963 to October 1964. Silver’s old band contributes two numbers while the bulk of the album introduced his brand-new quintet. In place of his veteran group that had been together for five years (trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor and drummer Roy Brooks), Silver enlisted a crew of young musicians including trumpeter Carmell Jones, tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, bassist Teddy Smith and drummer Roger Humphries.

The longtime band appears on a trio rendering of Silver’s hushed ballad “Lonely Woman,” which the pianist delivers in a gorgeous melancholic mood, and the tempo-shifting “Calcutta Cutie,” where the quintet starts slowly then zips into a swing, highlighted by the leader’s tinkling piano breaks that he said were reminiscent of a guitar being strummed.

After the leadoff title track, Silver and his new outfit turn up the heat with “The Natives Are Restless Tonight” that features Jones and Henderson taking the melodic head before the solos open up. Henderson is a revelation, with his ecstatic tenor flight while Silver jumps into the fray that is driven by Humphries’s skittering, spanking, tumbling drum runs. “Que Pasa” also features Henderson and Silver taking buzzing solos that begin with calm before brewing into a roil. Henderson’s composition, “The Kicker,” literally kicks with energy and velocity, as both Jones and the tenor saxophonist blow with fire and Silver takes the rollicking route.

While Song for My Father as a whole perfectly captured the Silver aura of his Blue Note days, the title melody made jazz history. With Silver’s bluesy, swinging piano flavored both by the Cape Verdean folk music of his father and Brazilian bossa nova, “Song for My Father” proved to be both an enthralling dance for the day and a timeless piece of music.