BLP 4250

Horace Silver - The Jody Grind

Released - March 1967

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, November 2, 1966
Woody Shaw, trumpet; Tyrone Washington, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Larry Ridley, bass; Roger Humphries, drums.

1780 tk.2 Mexican Hip Dance
1781 tk.9 The Jody Grind
1782 tk.16 Dimples

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, November 23, 1966
Woody Shaw, trumpet; James Spaulding, alto sax, flute; Tyrone Washington, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Larry Ridley, bass; Roger Humphries, drums.

1794 tk.25 Mary Lou
1795 tk.31 Blues Silver
1796 tk.33 Grease Piece

Session Photos

Horace Silver

Woody Shaw

James Spaulding

Tyrone Washington

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
The Jody Grind	Horace Silver	November 2 1966
Mary Lou	Horace Silver	November 23 1966
Mexican Hip Dance	Horace Silver	November 2 1966
Side Two
Blue Silver	Horace Silver	November 23 1966
Grease Piece	Horace Silver	November 23 1966
Dimples	Horace Silver	November 2 1966

Liner Notes

Some ten years have passed since I took a poll among leading musicians, asking them to select their favorite instrumentalists, bands and singers. They were also asked to name a new star in each of these categories. This was the first time a poll had been initiated that involved musicians exclusively, both as voters and winners. The results were published in a book, published shortly afterward, in the Encyclopedia of Jazz series.

As you may recall, or may have guessed (why else would I bring up the subject here?), Horace Silver was the New Star winner in the piano division. The tabulations revealed that a wide variety of his peers had voted for him, among them Herb Geller, John Graas, Bill Holman, J. J. Johnson, Quincy Jones, Charlie Ventura and Frank Wess.

The poll victory is of particular interest in retrospect, since Horace at that time was only just beginning to establish himself, both as pianist and composer, through his Blue Note LPs. He was one of an impressive crop of youngsters who were emerging around that time, among them Hampton Hawes, Tommy Flanagan, Dave McKenna, and two whom the jazz world mourned a few years later, Eddie Costa and Oscar Dennard. In other words, Horace was not filling a vacuum. He was earning this tribute at a time of healthy competition, when more and more pianists who had grown up under the shadow of Bud Powell were extending themselves beyond the concept that Powell had initiated during the previous decade.

Today, the Horace Silver image is world wide. By establishing an ever more personal writing and playing style, and by maintaining a group feeling that has no competition today in the particular idiom he represents, Horace has consolidated his position and broadened his base. Meanwhile, some of his contemporaries have lapsed into obscurity, or have changed the styles and instrumentation of their groups, or in some instances have been confused and frustrated by a failure to come to grips with the new developments in the jazz of the 1960s.

The durability of the Silver talent, as well as his continued thrust into the future, may be observed to advantage on THE JODY GRIND.

The premise of dividing the album into two sessions, one with this regular quintet format and the other with an extra horn added, will be familiar to almost all Silver-miners, since it was employed in his previous LP THE CAPE VERDEAN BLUES. On that occasion the sixth man was J.J. Johnson.

James Spaulding, the special addition on the present occasion, probably is as familiar as J.J. to most Blue Note students. He has made several highly impressive appearances on this label, most notably in my opinion on Freddie Hubbard's BREAKING POINT, as well as on sessions with Grant Green, Wayne Shorter, Duke Pearson and Bobby Hutcherson. Born in Indianapolis in 1937, he has been part of the New York scene only since '63 and has made rapid headway since then.

Of the two other members of the front line, Woody Shaw has been heard before with Horace (on CAPE VERDEAN BLUES) while Tyrone Washington is new to the group, having joined up in the summer of 1966. Woody was born December 24, 1944, in Laurinburg, N.C. (the town where a teen-aged John Birks Gillespie studied music), but was an infant when the family moved to Newark, N.J. He studied music at Arts High School in Newark, then gained some early experience working with a combo led by drummer Rufus "Speedy" Jones, and also for a while with Willie Bobo and Eric Dolphy. One of his most effective appearances on records was the UNITY album with Larry Young on Blue Note. He joined Horace in June, 1965.

Tyrone Washington was born June 4, 1944, in Blakely, Ga., but was also raised in Newark and was a schoolmate of Woody's at Arts High. Graduating from high school, he continued his studies at Howard University from 1964-6. It was, of course, Woody Shaw who recommended him to Horace.

Larry Ridley and Roger Humphries are no strangers either to Blue Note or to the Silver personnel. It is interesting to note that Ridley, just five weeks younger than James Spaulding, was also born in Indianapolis and played some of his first gigs there with Spaulding, the Montgomery Brothers and Freddie Hubbard. Humphries, just 25 at this writing, is a Pittsburgher who joined Horace in 1964. Previously he worked with Shirley Scott and Stanley Turrentine.

Of the title number he composed for this set, Horace says: "That's an expression that goes back to World War II. The GIs would use it to describe a guy who was making out with his old lady while he was away in the service. 'You had a good girl when you left,' they'd sing, 'but Jody's got her now.' Basically the theme is a minor blues, with some slightly different changes."

"The Jody Grind" opens with Horace establishing the mood via a 1 2-bar vamp. The group states the theme in unison. It's a stealthy, tongue-in-cheek sort of line, one that seems likely to stay in the mind indefinitely. Horace loses no time introducing his new soloist, for Tyrone takes over immediately after the thematic statement. His attack and phrasing are somewhat reminiscent of Sonny Rollins (he names Rollins and Coltrane as major influences).

Horace's solo on this track has an eerie, sometimes misterioso quality. Without any flashy technical display (simplicity at the right time has always been one of Horace's primary virtues) it sustains the mood, with substantial help from Ridley and Humphries. Notice how much the surprise element — that unexpected trumpet high C and rhythm suspension at the 11th bar — adds to the value of this melodically attractive piece.

"Mary Lou" introduces the sextet, playing a C Minor theme that is tightly voiced for the three horns. "l was just playing this record back," says Horace, "and I noticed that the theme is 15 bars long." It is refreshing to note that men of Horace's talent do not set out to write tunes with odd construction or in weird meters; they write as they feel, only to become aware afterward of the technicalities. The title, by the way (there is no connection with the old Broadway standard) was suggested to Horace by the fact that if ever a lyric were written, it would fit the first three notes. Of the four splendid solos here, James Spaulding's flute is outstanding for its amalgamation of good sound, discretion and relaxation.

"Mexican Hip Dance", a quintet track, has a couple of elements in common with "Mary Lou", since it too is in C Minor and has a ternary meter ("Mary Lou" is in 6/4: "Mexican Hip Dance" moves from 6/4 to 3/4 during the solo passages). "l tried to get something of the feeling of the Mariachi type music here," says Horace. "l heard something in that idiom one night when I was watching an old movie on TV." In addition to the main motif, there is a 16-bar out Chorus that precedes the final statement of the theme.

"Blue Silver" is an unusual theme in that it is essentially melodic and is stated at a slow tempo, yet relies to a great degree on rhythmic punctuations for its pensive, autumnal flavor. Horace has the solo spotlight here in a contribution that demonstrates, perhaps more strikingly than any other track in this album, the harmonic, modal and melodic developments in his musical thinking over the past couple of years.

"Grease Piece" is an exciting and admirably paced sextet track. "There seems to be a lot of fire throughout the whole performance," Horace comments. "It's sort of like a bunch of cats on a football field, the way the soloists pass the ball from one to another, building up the tension as they go, until Spaulding grabs the ball from us as if he's running for the touchdown."

"Dimples" is the most essentially melodic of all six compositions, and the most directly blues-related. A moderato waltz, it offers a lyrical, legato example of Woody Shaw at his best, as well as a contribution by Tyrone in which form, timing and space are subtly interrelated.

Although this is, as I mentioned, a waltz, you will hear no one-two-three from Larry Ridley. On the contrary, the variety of figures he inserts, the fluidity of his lines during Horace's passage, and the inventiveness of his own solo, add substantially to the value of the whole performance. Roger Humphries, too, demonstrates the importance of mobility and rhythmic obliqueness in the interpretation of a jazz waltz.

Recently I read a statement by an obviously upset jazz musician who said: "I don't want to hear pleasant music today. I want to hear screaming and hollering and kicking and biting. That's what the world's all about today." I'm afraid Horace Silver will offer him no solace. The music reflects the man. Horace is not kicking and screaming at the world. He loves life, and music, and the people who cross his path in America and Europe and Japan. You can hear this love — in pretty tunes like "Dimples" and exciting numbers like "Grease Piece" and humorous themes like "The Jody Grind". Perhaps this is a key to the success of the young man from Norwalk: if you dig living you will dig Horace's interpretation of life.

— LEONARD FEATHER