BST 84325

The Best Of Horace Silver

Released - 1969

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, November 13, 1954
Kenny Dorham, trumpet; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Doug Watkins, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.8 Doodlin'

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, February 6, 1955
Kenny Dorham, trumpet; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Doug Watkins, bass; Art Blakey, drums.

tk.13 The Preacher

Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ, November 10, 1956
Donald Byrd, trumpet; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Doug Watkins, bass; Louis Hayes, drums.

tk.12 Senor Blues

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 30, 1959
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Junior Cook, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Eugene Taylor, bass; Louis Hayes, drums.

tk.2 Sister Sadie

"Village Gate", Greenwich Village, NY, May 19, 1961
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Junior Cook, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Gene Taylor, bass; Roy Brooks, drums.

tk.4 Filthy McNasty

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, July 13, 1962
Blue Mitchell, trumpet; Junior Cook, tenor sax; Horace Silver, piano; Gene Taylor, bass; John Harris Jr., drums.

tk.3 The Tokyo Blues

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Señor Blues	Horace Silver	November 10 1956
The Preacher	Horace Silver	February 6 1955
Doodlin'	Horace Silver	November 13 1954
Side Two
Sister Sadie	Horace Silver	August 30 1959
Filthy McNasty	Horace Silver	May 19 1961
The Tokyo Blues	Horace Silver	July 13 1962

Liner Notes

A predictable conduct of record companies is the issuing of albums featuring "the greatest hits of ..." or "the best of ." There has been more than an alluvial flow of such compilations, but only a few of these anthologies have faithfully and honestly displayed a valid sampling of the said performer's most representative best. This first album that brings together a collection of the "best" of Horace Silver does approach the ultimate station; however, it is expected that it can be, at best, a mini-collection of Horace's wondrous recordings.

The mutually nutritive fifteen-year association between Blue Note Records and pianist-composer-lyricist Horace Silver has borne a large share of good, delicious and lasting jazz sounds. Accepting the fact that the total Silver recorded repertoire spans a broad variety of musical colleagues, concepts, and predilections, initially it might appear to be a difficult assignment to select the specific items to include in the album. Then again, if this task was posed, for instance, to some thoroughly turned-on Horace Silver jazz buff, he might not need to use the proverbial method of elimination. As I experienced personally, and you might like-wise echo the process, certain Horace Silver tunes immediately flash across the mind's screening chamber. This response seems to speak for the strong agreement over the gutsy, uncomplicated but emphatic and spirited way many of his tunes have captured his audiences over the years.

It is duly impressive that such a good percentage of his compositions and/or performances have staunchly stood the test of many years of continued eloquence. Another dimension of the measure of Horace's tunes can be felt via the adaptation and interpretations by fellow jazzmen; this is cognizance of the decided influence and the inherent appeal of his music's natural resources. Herein is a basis for comments relative to Horace Silver's accreditation as the founding father of the stylistic model labeled funky jazz. In resurrecting the down home rudiments of the blues and contemporary black gospel music — a revivification of the basic roots of jazz, Horace produced a fresh, zestful uplift for modern jazz. His insightful perception of his jazz past combined with his personal quality of unmitigated musical energy and warm, sensitive tendencies certainly created wide demand for his work — first by Stan Getz in 1951, then by other pacesetters like Miles Davis, Milt Jackson, and Art Blakey in the early nineteen-fifties. In 1954, the Down Beat Jazz Critics' Poll selected him as the new star on piano. And in the following year, he joined the Jazz Messengers under Art Blakey's banner. Incidentally, Blakey in pointing out Horace's unflagging drive, remarked, "Horace always worked and swung hard no matter how many people were in the audience." And it was this Jazz Messenger unit that cooked and wailed so hard that prominence arrived in short order. Consequently, Horace ventured out on his own once again, and he has led his own distinctive jazz groups since then.

Speaking of his groups, Horace is intolerant of anything short of a heavy sense of commitment; his groups are always well-rehearsed and play with compelling musical force. His sphere of musical essentials also include well-designed and structured ideas lending to the fine craftsmanship of his compositions. Horace is a subscriber to concepts of astrology and numerology. In this context, he related what an astrologer conveyed to him, "You are born to be a composer." And from his numerology chart, there were indications that Horace should pay attention to details. This proclivity to details is apparent to the musicians who have worked with him, to his record producers at Blue Note, and to his legion of stalwart fans. Moreover, those who are born under the zodiacal sign of Virgo, as Horace is, manage things with efficiency, accuracy and imagination when they assume a leadership role. Horace seldom has more than one new album released per annum. He explains, "I don't record until I feel I have a good package. This requires time and it is not easy to prepare as per my standards." Considering this example of self-determination, and the high standards and notions set up by Horace through the years of his development, the following tunes make up one of the funkiest collections assembled in a single disc:

SENOR BLUES is one of my own steady favorites — a twelve bar blues that I have consistently programmed. It is a tune that seems to grab, and in many cases, instantly recruits new Horace Silver fans out of the crowd of listeners. Recorded in November, 1956 and originally included in the album, "Six Pieces of Silver," Blue Note BLP1539, Senor Blues is sure to snag new devotees. It exemplifies Horace's ability to extend a germinal idea and to sustain a high level of interest and excitement. Likewise, it is a demonstration of how intrinsically lyrical his music really is when you consider how Horace's own lyrics meld so well with the tune. Anita O'Day and Mark Murphy are just two jazz vocalists who have delivered fine recorded performances of the tune with the orchestrations of Gary McFarland and Al Cohn respectively. Like Horace himself, this Silver unit was comparatively youthful — Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, and Doug Watkins were all in their twenties and drummer Louis Hayes was just eighteen years old.

THE PREACHER and Doodlin' were both from the 1954 Jazz Messengers featuring Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley and Art Blakey. In retrospect, Horace noted, "I used to play a lot of dances in New York. After the dances, we would jam to Show Me The Way To Go Home as a last tune telling the dancers it was time to split and go home. The chords were so simple and swinging, I thought I'd make a real churchy line from it. In those days so many people were writing lines on simple chord changes from other tunes." So, the popular shouting line of The Preacher came from a somewhat unlikely source. Woody Herman's big band has been playing a Nat Pierce arrangement for years and often opens his shows with this wailer.

DOODLIN' was aptly titled as it was a direct result of Horace doodlin' at the piano. Numerous versions of this intriguing blues testify to its appeal... guys like Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, and thousands of jazz ensembles in schools and colleges have the tune in their stock; and, of course, the lyrics by Jon Hendricks are somethin' else!

As if Side One isn't enough to gas you out, the flip side roars in with SISTER SADIE up front. A tour de force of 1959, it is a churning, burning performance with the quintet sounding like a big band when they play a secondary melody. I have always dug the way hornmen Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook simulate the alternating riffing of big band brass and reed sections. And Horace's piano is too much! Is it any wonder why Buddy Rich and Woody Herman have latched on to the Sister. The title is a fictitious character though it smacks of an ecclesiast. As Horace puts it, "Before I started writing lyrics, I used to discover what words might fit the opening phrases for tune titles. Sister Sadie fitted fine, and later I wrote lyrics to it." And you've heard Eddie Jefferson give his swinging reading of it, haven't you? The idea for the melody came from an old bass lick bass players used to play. Horace stretched it out and embellished it to its final form.

From Horace Silver's first "live" recording, "Doing The Thing," Blue Note ST-84076 BLP4076, comes FILTHY McNASTY...a performance that tore up the crowd at The Village Gate. Horace enjoys relating the background of the tune: "Doug Watkins told me about a guy in Detroit named Phil T. McNasty and all the guys used to tease him. Later on, in an unrelated situation when I was watching the tail end of a W. C. Fields' late nite movie, "Bank Dick," I was catching the credits, cast and all. I noticed a character named Filthy McNasty listed, and it cracked me up! I thought about the guy in Detroit and figured Filthy NcNasty might be a helluva title for a funky blues, so I went to the piano and composed the tune from my inspiration." It is a down home thing that finds Horace leading the way and Junior Cook in particular turning in a bristling tenor solo.

Finally, TOKYO BLUES is a culmination of Horace's tour in Japan in late 1961 going into 1962. It is a synthesis of his impressions of the beauty and warmth of the country and people he found. He recalled, "They knocked me out, they were so kind and beautiful. I wanted to write something to dedicate to them." So mixing some Latin sounds and jazz which he found so prevalent in clubs in Japan, Tokyo Blues started a series of Silver compositions surrounding Nippon.

Horace personally selected the tunes in this first representative collection including some of his earlier music which contributed largely to his ascending popularity and growth. His fully accredited eminence is not accidental. A whole lot of people will be funkier because of this reintroduction or introduction, as the case may be, to Horace Silver's Silverama of Swinging Sounds ... some of his very best!

— HERB WONG, KJAZ San Francisco,
Urban West and FM & Fine Arts

Produced by ALFRED LION
All compositions written by Horace Silver
Art Direction: Frank Gauna