BLP 5034

Horace Silver - Volume 2 / Art Blakey - Spotlight On Drums

Released - 1954

Recording and Session Information

WOR Studios, NYC, November 23, 1953
Horace Silver, piano #2,3,5-8; Percy Heath, bass #2,3,5-8; Art Blakey, drums; "Sabu" Martinez, bongos, congas #1.

BN533-0 tk.1 Message From Kenya
BN534-2 tk.6 Opus De Funk
BN535-1 tk.9 Day In, Day Out
BN536-0 tk.11 Nothing But The Soul
BN537-1 tk.14 I Remember You
BN538-0 tk.15 Silverware
BN539-0 tk.18 How About You
BN540-0 tk.21 Buhaina

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
How About You	Freed-Lane	November 23 1953
I Remember You	Mercer-Schertzinger	November 23 1953
Silverware	Horace Silver	November 23 1953
Message From Kenya	Art Blakey	November 23 1953
Side Two
Opus De Funk	Horace Silver	November 23 1953
Nothing But the Soul	Art Blakey	November 23 1953
Buhaina	Horace Silver	November 23 1953
Day In Day Out	Bloom-Mercer	November 23 1953

Liner Notes

By LEONARD FEATHER

ALMOST a year has elapsed since the release of the first Horace Silver long playing record (Blue Note BLP 5018). The year has seen new horizons open up for the brilliant 25-year-old pianist from Norwalk, Conn. While his LP debut was winning the plaudits of reviewers and fans, Horace enlarged his audience in Birdland and the country's other leading jazz clubs, playing with Lester Young and other noted combos. In recent months he has been allied with a new group formed by Art Blakey, the phenomenal drummer featured with him in the present set of selections.

Of the six piano solos in this new LP, three are based on popular songs of a few years ago — How About You, I Remember You and Day In Day Out. Endowing them with his original rhythmic and harmonic changes when he embroiders the melody in the opening chorus, he proceeds to improvise on the chord pattern of the tune, and in each case the overall result, in effect, is as personal as if he had woven the fabric himself instead of merely cutting the cloth. Of the three, I Remember You owes the most to the original melody, providing Horace with an exceptionally fine framework. Note especially the beautiful coda on this long and delightful performance.

The other three piano solos are Silver originals. Silverware, a perfect example of a moderate-tempo performance that achieves an easy, rocking beat, is based on the well known F-to-G Flat pattern originally identified with a famous swing standard.

Opus De Funk is a traditional 12-bar blues. As its title hints, it combines the "funky" approach of an old-time blues with the sterling Silver touch and technique. Buhaina, the other original, is named for Horace's trio-mate, Abdallah Ibn Buhaina. Better known to his fans as Art Blakey, Buhaina is one of the many leading musicians who have embraced the Mohammedan faith.

A final word for the Third Man of this unique set of performances. Percy Heath has been praised many times before, both in our Blue Note comments and in every publication that deals with jazz. Never has his work been more discreet and dependable than in his accompaniments to Horace's solos here. A Heath bass performance is a study in metronomic stability. The Horace Silver Trio is indeed an equilateral triangle.

On Message From Kenya and Nothing But The Soul Horace steps aside to let the spotlight fall on the drums.

Message From Kenya teams Art Blakey with Sabu Martinez, the 24-year-old conga drum virtuoso who came here some nine years ago from Puerto Rico. He has been featured with Josephine Premice, played in Tito Rodriguez' mambo orchestra and was prominent in the last big band of Dizzy Gillespie, in which he took over the role originally filled by the late and great Chano Pozo.

The story of Message From Kenya, Art tells us, was first told to him by Moses Mann, a Nigerian drummer who worked in this country with Pearl Primus. The evocation, voiced dramatically in a mixture of Spanish and Swahili, tells of a hunter whose cries celebrate the news that he has captured more game than any other hunter in the village, in order to convince the girl he loves of his prowess. The ritual comes vividly to life as Sabu and Blakey develop a study in rhythmic variety and dynamics with exciting crescendos and diminuendos.

On the other drum number, Nothing But The Soul, Art is alone. Despite the temptation to use this opportunity by wandering off in a variety of pyrotechnical displays with all kinds of tempo and mood changes, Art has chosen to limit himself mainly to the development and maintenance of the beat, in a dazzling assortment of interpretations.

While there is nothing in this performance calculated to amaze the drum schools, there is much that will intrigue the average listener in Art's demonstration of rhythmic patterns, in the dramatic suspension during a long roll, in the dexterity with which he handles the sticks and snares. Art is the man who won the critics poll on Down Beat last year, and it seems inevitable that the public will shortly follow suit by acclaiming him no less enthusiastically.

Photos by FRANCIS WOLFF
Cover Design by JEROME KUHL