HORACE SILVER: A RARE JAZZ ELEMENT - Part 2: "THE QUINTET" And Beyond...
HORACE SILVER
BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE CONTINUED
"THE QUINTET" And beyond...
 |
| Horace Silver |
This quintet became something of a territory band; traveling to Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and Washington. It also saw several interesting personnel changes. In 1958, it included Art Farmer on trumpet, Clifford Jordan on tenor saxophone, Teddy Konick on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums. It recorded one album before breaking up: "Further Explorations." Eventually, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and tenor saxophonist Junior Cook replaced Art Farmer and Hank Mobley. Drummer Louis Hayes left to join the Cannonball Adderley band, and was replaced by Roy Brooks. Finally, bassist Doug Watkins was replaced by Gene Taylor. "The Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, Louis Hayes/Roy Brooks band was one of the best bands I ever had" (Horace Silver). They stayed together for six happy years, and were like family. The term 'funky' was used to describe their music. This is the 'cooking' band that recorded Horace Silver Quinter and Trio: "Finger Poppin'" and, Horace Silver Quintet and Trio: "Blowin' The Blues Away" in 1959. These two albums contained such potent Silver hardbop grooves as: "Finger Poppin'," "Juicy Lucy," "Come On Home," "Blowin' The Blues Away," "The St. Vitus Dance," "Peace," Sister Sadie," and "The Baghdad Blues." Silver was in his prime, and these two recordings top his 'best ever' list.
In the mid-sixties Silver broke up the Blue Mitchell-Junior Cook band and started working with several different musicians; tenor saxophonists Bennie Maupin & Joe Henderson, trumpeter Woody Shaw, and pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. In 1969 he assembled what he called his "kick ass" quintet with Randy Brecker on trumpet, tenor saxophonist Bennie Maupin, bassist John Williams, and Billy Cobham on drums. He also did something he had avoided all his life. He fell in love and got married to Barbara Jean Dove in New York. Silver continued to travel to play gigs. One gig in particular took him to Redondo Beach, California, he fell in love with the climate and decided to take his family there. By this time he and his wife had a son, Gregory Paul Silver.
After five years of marriage Silver and his wife divorced. He got interested in the study of metaphysics and spiritualism which he pursued to the end of his life. This led him to write and record: "The United States of Mind," a musical work in three parts featuring fine vocalist Andy Bey. It did not sell well, and went out of print quickly. However in 2004, Blue Note re-issued the complete work in a 2-CD set.
A series of recording projects kept Silver busy during the remainder of the 60s and 70s. A contract with Blue Note for 5 LPs, produced "Silver 'n Brass," "Silver 'n Wood," "Silver 'n Percussion," "Silver 'n Voices, and "Silver 'n Strings." These are all out of print. But Silver pushed on. He formed his own production company: Silveto Productions Inc., of which Silveto Records and Emerald Records were part, and worked with Bill Cosby on an album: "Guides to Growing Up." After ten years, Silver was not able to get his production company off the ground, and threw in the towel, but did not dissolve Silveto Productions . He signed with Columbia Records for two albums: "It's Got to be Funky," and "Pencil Packin' Papa," and then with GRP/Impulse for two albums: "The Hardbop Grandpop," and, "A Prescription for the Blues."
In the mid-eighties, important changes began to overtake Horace Silver. His father died (1986). The man for whom he had used a Brazilian rhythmic concept, and a Cape Verdean melodic concept to compose his best-selling song: "Song for My Father," which he introduced at the It Club in Los Angeles. Another noticeable change came in the dearth of talented young jazz musicians available for use in a Silver quintet. Silver's complaint was that most could read music well, but were lacking in harmonic competency. "They were lacking in improvisational skills. They couldn't get down with the chord changes. They played too many notes, and some of them were wrong. They played too long and didn't have much to say" (Horace Silver). Silver did not condemn music schools indiscriminately, he tempered his critique with an acknowledgement that the schools did provide excellent instruction with their emphasis on ensemble playing, and arranging. He argued though, that "jazz is basically improvisation" and schools did not seem to stress the need for good harmonic knowledge in order to improvise well. To this end, he has established the Horace Silver Foundation to give scholarships to deserving young pianists and composers.
As the nineties approached, Silver began to toy with the idea of taking a leave of absence from the music business. But he hung in and stuck it out. Instead, he decided to get off the road. He was tired of touring, but did not know how to stop. It was like a drug, and he had been doing it for a lifetime. Serendipitously, he found the doctrines and philosophies of mysticism and spiritualism appealing, and would embrace them with deep conviction to the end of his life. Suddenly, it seemed, he had time to 'hear' new music. It was coming from his dreams, and every aspect of day-to-day life. It was resurgent. His idea for a theatre work with choreographed dancers, singers, and a narrator, blossomed into "Rockin' With Rachmaninoff" which, with the assistance of then Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and the L. A. Cultural Affairs Department, was staged on a Friday and Saturday night in June 1991. It received inspiring press reviews. Silver approached several large music companies to have "Rockin' With Rachmaninoff" recorded, including Columbia Records, Concord Records, Fantasy Records, and GRP/Impulse Records. No one would talk to him, much less listen to his work. Eventually a small label: Bop City Records recorded the work, and it was released in 2001.
On the surface, the large record companies surely had collectively treated Horace Silver to a personal, and professional affront that was disrespectful. He had walked and played with jazz giants, enjoyed a stellar career; was a jazz master, an icon, minted in the truest traditions of the jazz idiom. An artist who gave his life to his art and had survived.
He deserved to be heard. He had to be heard.
Instead they set him up to have his work bootlegged, pirated, and ripped-off. In reality, this was the ultimate insult to the memory of immortal jazz musicians with whose sagacious missive Silver was entrusted: Louis Armstrong, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins, Lady Day, Ella, Sarah, Carmen, and all the other jazz artists who, with indomitable spirit and genius, were instrumental in creating a music industry that still lives, and who collectively preserved and presented America with its 'only' original art form, on a silver platter, stained only with a noble patina of blood, sweat, and tears from their persecution over decades.
Horace Silver's final recording session "Jazz Has a Sense of Humor" (Verve), took place on December 17 and 18, 1998 at Avatar Studios, New York City, in a quintet setting. It featured Jimmy Greene, tenor, soprano saxophones; Ryan Kisor, trumpet; John Webber, bass; Willie Jones III, drums; and Horace Silver, piano. This was the only recording Silver did for the Verve label.
Silver's music life is the epitome of a hard fought, but successful jazz career. He became financially independent, was able to retire at will. His last days were spent in safety and security in his house in Malibu Beach, in sunny Southern California with its panoramic view of the Pacific. He had learned everything he could about the business of jazz from Alfred Lion at Blue Note Records. But where Silver really learned the jazz 'ropes' was during club dates and jam sessions at Minton's Playhouse, 206 W. 118th St. Harlem, New York; Birdland, 1678 Broadway, NYC; and the Paradise Club, in mid-town Manhattan, NYC. These venues is where some of the heaviest jazz artillery was forged for all time, and he used it all to his advantage. Horace Silver was always a 'clean,' scrupulous artist that never forgot his roots, and lived faithfully by the advice his mother passed down to him when he was a young boy: "Not to hang out with people of questionable character, but always to have a friendly hello and a handshake for them and then go on your way." (Gertrude Silver).
The End
Sources for this tribute to Horace Silver: Liner notes from several Horace Silver CDs and LPs.
"Let's Get To The Nitty Gritty" - The Autobiography Of Horace Silver.
Published by University of California Press.
Edited, with Afterword, by Phil Pastras.
Foreword by Joe Zawinul.
Comments
Post a Comment