BLP 4042

 Horace Silver - Horace-Scope

Released - September 1960

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, July 8, 1960
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Junior Cook, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Gene Taylor, bass; Roy Brooks, drums.

tk.10 Where You At
tk.14 Strollin'
tk.22 Without You

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, July 9, 1960
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Junior Cook, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Gene Taylor, bass; Roy Brooks, drums.

tk.23 Nica's Dream
tk.31 Horace-Scope
tk.34 Yeah!
tk.38 Me And My Baby

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Strollin'	Horace Silver	08/07/1960
Where You At?	Horace Silver	08/07/1960
Without You	Don Newey	08/07/1960
Horace-Scope	Horace Silver	09/07/1960
Side Two
Yeah!	Horace Silver	09/07/1960
Me and My Baby	Horace Silver	09/07/1960
Nica's Dream	Horace Silver	09/07/1960

Liner Notes

FEW active jazz men find the patience to fritter away time pouring over the piles of monthly horoscopic literature proclaiming great fortunes or issuing ominous wanring. Should Horace Silver, born September 2, 1928, take the time to pick up an issue of Astrology — Your Daily Horoscope, coincidentally or not, he would probably be amazed to find his image reflected there.

"If you celebrate your birthday between August 23 and September 22,
you belong to Virgo, the Sign of Stability. To be born under the
banner of Virgo indicates a tendency to get things done properly
and on time. Although you are a dreamer and idealist, you have
common sense, which stands you in good stead in times of crises.
Your interest and feeling for dramatics and music is strong. You
are at your maximum efficiency as your own boss. You always strive
for accuracy.”

To those closest to Silver, this is Horace in a nut shell. This album, as have his previous offerings on Blue Note, reflects that strong proclivity to exactness.

Horace expresses all the idealism and dreams of sensitive artists the world over. Reaching the millennium when his work is heard, understood, appreciated and enjoyed by everyone is his ultimate goal. “Making people happy through music” is the way Silver puts it,” — making people really open up and get inside the music.” Occasionally, on a good night in some smoky night club, when the group is really “on,” this goal dangles tantalizingly near, almost within his grasp.

“I don’t know what happens, or what makes it happen,” Silver states, ‘I don’t even know when it might happen. There are just some places, sometimes joints, in which the people let their hair down and just climb right into the music with you. These times make it all seem worthwhile.” So far, the perpetration of this everlasting, eternal good feeling has eluded him, as it has most artists, yet Horace continues the chase with fierce determination. The successful record date is the closest he has come to permanently capturing the elusive feeling.

So often, the record date degenerates into just another blowing session, at which time, popular favorites or hackneyed melodies are given unearned space in recording files. Not so with Silver! Each date is a well planned, well rehearsed chronical of his musical extension. Not content to relax and coast to fame on the superior execution of other composers’ tunes, Silver deliberately avoids recording the much recorded standards, choosing instead the challenging task of writing original compositions which are the mirrors of his personal musical conception.

Occasionally he will re-record a tune, as he has done here with Horace-Scope and Yeah, because the years, experience and instrumentation changes have wrought new ideas of presentation.

"Record dates are pretty important to me,” Horace admits. Once they put it down there, you can’t change it. So it has to be right. I only do two albums a year, and that’s enough. It keeps me scuffling to write that much material and try it out so that it comes off as something to be proud of.”

Silver is not unmindful of the tremendous value of his personnel.

"I thank God that I’ve got good cats,” he says humbly, “because no matter what you have written down and what you, yourself are doing, if the rest of the group aren’t right — if any one of them is not right, the group just won’t make it.”

Blue Mitchell continues here in his stellar role as the unofficial ‘boss’ horn. The tenure with Silver has seen this fine young trumpeter rise to the fore among the leading trumpeters of this era.

Junior Cook is developing with a steady sureness and displays on this album a maturity spiced with youthful enthusiasm.

It is usually the role of the bassist to be the surging anchorman in the rhythm section. Gene Taylor has accepted this responsibility eagerly and provides a sure-footed foundation.

On this, his first record date with the Silver Quintet, drummer Roy Brooks gives an exciting, driving performance. Hired, unheard, on the recommendation of his predecessor, Louis Hayes, Brooks has lived up to all the high praise and commendations preceding him.

“Boy, I was lucky to get Roy,’ Horace says gratefully. "Actually he is further along now than Lou was about this same time after he joined us, and you know how much Hayes developed. I have a lot of confidence in Roy — a lot of confidence.”

The title plays an important part in Silver compositions. It is the key to the tune. It is a direct and uncomplicated as the melody and changes are narrative. Together the title and the composition complete one whole picture as through the composer’s eyes.

Strollin’ does just that. It is a simple melody played at a relaxed, leisurely medium tempo. Hear the compelling Silver left hand especially, on this tune, Junior Cook plays a fine contemporary tenor solo.

Silver refers to Where You At? as “an abstract type of tune with mambo overtone running throughout.” Brooks sparkles as the rhythm pacer and his fours are especially effective. The title is not the slang phrase which asks the same queition. It was chosen because early rehearsals of the tun were fairly chaotic with various members of the quintet getting lost in the changes.

Stories of Horace Silver’s eagerness to assist the talented, dedicated newcomer in jazz are numerous. Without You is simply another of those gestures. Written by Don Newey, the tune here is given a sensitive arrangement and outing. The ensemble voicing, led by Mitchell, is split by a brief, plaintive statement by Cook and a thoughtful, culminating solo by Silver.

Horace-Scope is a renamed, rearranged version of Horoscope which Silver recorded on his first album as a leader, The Horace Silver Trio With Art Blakey (Blue Note 1520). He included it here because “lots of people have asked me Why I never played it anymore, so I thought I would redo it.” The tune is a medium cooker of characteristic Silver vintage.

Yeah is taken at a way-up tempo. The grout generates a churning excitement and much tension behind Junior Cook as he rips into a whirlwind, building solo. Notice also here, Brooks takes a brief, electrifying, explosive solo. This tune was also recorded on the first trio date with Blakey. Both Yeah and Horace-Scope were first written many years ago when Horace was attending high school in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Me and My Baby is one of those groovy, pulsating, black dirt kind of blues for which Silver is most popular. It follows the formula of solos for everyone, and Taylor is given his only solo room of the date. The tune exhibits much of Silver’s serious bidding for musical recognition and longevity. He expresses his belief that the tune has lyric possibilities.

Nica’s Dream in Silver’s own words, “was written several years ago for a very dear friend. It has been recorded several times by various groups and on several labels, and I thought I would like to do it for Blue Note.” Usually treated with great solemnity, if not reverence, the tune here is recorded in typical Silver comprehensiveness.. The regal Nica is even introduced to the spiritual, Down By The Riverside.

Yes, the Astrology horoscope is indeed prophetic —

“VIRGO — Emotional barriers hurdled successfully — memorable social experience — career achievement — EXCELLENT RESULTS FROM SELF EXPRESSION.

— BARBARA J. GARDNER

Cover Drawing by PAULA DONOHUE
Photos by FRANCIS WOLFF
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT HORACE-SCOPE

Consistency, thy name is Horace Silver. Rarely has there been an artist — in the annals of jazz specifically or music generally — who has sustained such a level of excellence when it came to the quality of writing and the sound and substance of his or her ensemble. Singling out specific Silver albums as milestones, particularly over the 15-year period that began when he cut his first Jazz Messengers session and ended when he shifted his emphasis to vocals for his United States of Mind trilogy, is akin to picking the "best" of Art Tatum's solo recordings — and Tatum was operating by himself. Personnel might change, and the band might occasionally expand to accommodate a special guest, but Horace Silver's music was inevitably together and uniformly excellent.

Still, it is no exaggeration to call Horace-Scope a benchmark in the Silver discography. in terms of both its program and its personnel.

Song selection stands out for the inclusion of three previously recorded Silver compositions, a rarity then and henceforth from the amazingly prolific pianist/composer. Silver was willing to revisit material for a vocal version of "Senor Blues" with Bill Henderson (both are included on the Rudy Van Gelder Edition of Six Pieces of Silver) and after fellow pianist Gil Coggins suggested a revised arrangement of "Melancholy Mood" (the original is on Further Explorations by the Horace Silver Quintet, the remake on Blowin' the Blues Away). Here. however, three of Silver's six contributions were familiar, and his ability to invest them with new life testifies to nothing so much as the status Silver had already achieved as one of the all-time great jazz composers. As annotator Barbara J. Gardner notes, the title track (aka "Horoscope") and "Yeah!" debuted on the two October 1952 trio sessions that comprised Silver's first Blue Note 10-inch LP. and the spirited expanded versions here can be taken as conclusive proof that, great as Silver's trio music is, the quintet format is truly ideal for the full realization of his compositional brilliance. "Nica's Dream," the third oldie on the program, was first heard in 1956 on Silver's final recording With the original Jazz Messengers for Columbia. It is hardly surprising that Silver wanted to make this beautiful composition part of his Blue Note catalogue, and it receives a performance here that is more brief than the original but equally lyrical.

The new Silver titles found him operating at the same inspired level. "Strollin"' was "Nica's" equal in lyricism, and their sequencing created an unusual and effective programmatic frame around the more hard-driving titles; "Where You At?" brought his passion for intricate rhythmic and structural schemes to the fore; and "Me and My Baby" delivered the dose of celebratory soul that Silver's fans had come to expect. "Without You," a haunting ballad that stands up well against the leader's writing, is the work of Don Newey, another of whose compositions can be heard as a bonus track on Blowin' the Blues Away.

Horace-Scope is also notable for introducing what proved to be the longest-running edition of Silver's quintet. Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, and Gene Taylor had been aboard since late in 1958, and had made two previous albums with Silver; but this was the first appearance of drummer Roy Brooks, and thus the first recording session of a band that would continue working without a personnel change for more than three years and three more complete Blue Note LPs, plus tracks heard on the original LP and RVG Edition of Song for My Father. The quintet sounded equally fine, yet different when Louis Hayes was the drummer, as Brooks, who lacked the finesse of the young Hayes, brought a distinct power of his own to the band. In his debut recording, Brooks proves to be a superlative band drummer and on "Where You At?" a focused, inventive soloist. The underappreciated Taylor also adds one of his best recorded solos on "Me and My Baby."

Most of the featured space goes to the horns and the leader, of course, and is handled with an efficiency and invention that has too often been taken for granted. Martin Williams once observed that Silver had taken the principles of the original Count Basie band and placed them into a small-group context, and the point was never made more clearly than when we hear Mitchell and Cook adding brief but cogent improvisations around the breaks in "Yeah!" and "Nica's Dream." As for saying it all in one chorus, check out Cook on "Strollin'," a solo that sounds ideal for vocalese embellishment.

— Bob Blumenthal, 2005