Table of Contents:
Horace Silver: The Top 25 pearls in Jazz history
Horace Silver biography
From the perspective of the 21st century, it is clear that few jazz musicians had a greater impact on the contemporary mainstream than Horace Silver. The hard bop style that Silver pioneered in the ’50s is now dominant, played not only by holdovers from an earlier generation, but also by fuzzy-cheeked musicians who had yet to be born when the music fell out of critical favor in the ’60s and ’70s.
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Silver’s earliest musical influence was the Cape Verdean folk music he heard from his Portuguese-born father. Later, after he had begun playing piano and saxophone as a high schooler, Silver came under the spell of blues singers and boogie-woogie pianists, as well as boppers like Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell.
In 1950, Stan Getz played a concert in Hartford, Connecticut, with a pickup rhythm section that included Silver, drummer Walter Bolden, and bassist Joe Calloway. So impressed was Getz, he hired the whole trio. Silver had been saving his money to move to New York anyway; his hiring by Getz sealed the deal.
Silver worked with Getz for a year, then began to freelance around the city with such big-time players as Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Oscar Pettiford. In 1952, he recorded with Lou Donaldson for the Blue Note label; this date led him to his first recordings as a leader. In 1953, he joined forces with Art Blakey to form a cooperative under their joint leadership.
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The band’s first album, Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, was a milestone in the development of the genre that came to be known as hard bop. Many of the tunes penned by Silver for that record — “The Preacher,” “Doodlin’,” “Room 608” — became jazz classics.
By 1956, Silver had left the Messengers to record on his own. The series of Blue Note albums that followed established him for all time as one of jazz’s major composer/pianists. LPs like Blowin’ the Blues Away and Song for My Father (both recorded by an ensemble that included Silver’s longtime sidemen Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook) featured Silver’s harmonically sophisticated and formally distinctive compositions for small jazz ensemble.
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Silver’s piano style — terse, imaginative, and utterly funky — became a model for subsequent mainstream pianists to emulate. Some of the most influential horn players of the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s first attained a measure of prominence with Silver — musicians like Donald Byrd, Woody Shaw, Joe Henderson, Benny Golson, and the Brecker Brothers all played in Silver’s band at a point early in their careers. Silver has even affected members of the avant-garde; Cecil Taylor confesses a Silver influence, and trumpeter Dave Douglas played briefly in a Silver combo.
Silver recorded exclusively for Blue Note until that label’s eclipse in the late ’70s, whereupon he started his own label, Silveto. Horace Silver’s ’80s work was poorly distributed.
During that time he began writing lyrics to his compositions, and his work began to display a concern with music’s metaphysical powers, as exemplified by album titles like Music to Ease Your Disease and Spiritualizing the Senses. In the ’90s, Silver abandoned his label venture and began recording for Columbia.
With his re-emergence on a major label, Silver once again received a measure of the attention his contributions deserve. Certainly, no one ever contributed a larger and more vital body of original compositions to the jazz canon. Silver died in New York on June 18, 2014, at the age of 85.
He had a son, Gregory – now a rap musician under the name of G Wise – from his marriage to Barbara, which ended in divorce.
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver, pianist and composer, born 2 September 1928, died 18 June 2014.
Selected Discography
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, Blue Note, 1954
Blowin’ the Blues Away, Blue Note, 1959
Song For My Father, Blue Note, 1964
Cape Verdean Blues, Blue Note, 1965
The Hardbop Grandpop, GRP, 1996
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Horace Silver – Blowin The Blues Away
Personnel:
Horace Silver – piano
Blue Mitchell – trumpet
Junior Cook – tenor saxophone
Gene Taylor – bass
Louis Hayes – drums
from the album ‘BLOWIN’ THE BLUES AWAY’ (Blue Note Records)
Artist or Composer / Score name | Cover | List of Contents |
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Vivaldi – Concert in G minor Summer arr. violin and piano |
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Vivaldi – Concerto No. 2 In G Minor Op. 8 Rv 315mov. 3 Presto Summer L’estate Piano Solo Arr. (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Vivaldi – Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315 mov. 3 Presto Summer L’estate Piano Solo arr. sheet music | Vivaldi – Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 8, RV 315 mov. 3 Presto Summer L’estate Piano Solo arr. sheet music | |
Vivaldi – Summer The Four Seasons Piano Solo arr..mscz | ||
Vivaldi – Winter Guitar Arr. Based On Violin Concerto In F Minor Rv 297 L’inverno (Sheet Music) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Vivaldi – Winter Guitar arr. based on Violin Concerto in F minor, RV 297 L’inverno (sheet music) | Vivaldi – Winter Guitar arr. based on Violin Concerto in F minor, RV 297 L’inverno (sheet music) | |
Vivaldi Gloria Piano Reduction |
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Vivaldi Master Musicians Series (Book) Biography by Michael Talbot |
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Vivo Per Lei – Bocelli | ||
Vivo per lei (Bocelli – Giorgia) | ||
VK Vanros Kloud Wings Of Piano |
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Vladimir Cosma Les Musiques De Films Vol 2 |
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Vladimir Cosma Les Musiques De Films Vol 2 |
Vladimir’s Blues (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Volker Bertelmann – Lion Main Theme sheet music |
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Volodos Mozart’s Turkish March From Sonata No. 11 |
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Volodos – Rachmaninoff Where Beauty Dwells Melodiya Op. 21 No. 7 Version Putsmeiser Piano Solo |
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Volumia – Afscheid | ||
Volumia – Hou Me Vast | ||
Vorrei (Lunapop) | ||
W.C. Handy The St. Louis Blues | W.C. Handy The St. Louis Blues | |
W.C. Handy – The St. Louis Blues (Musescore File).mscz | ||
W.E. – Evgenis Waltz Abel Korzeniowski |
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Wagner – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – complete (arr. for piano solo & voice) | Wagner – Die Meistersinger… | |
Wagner – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg -Vorspiel (arr. 2 for pianos) | Wagner – Die Meistersinger…Vorspiel | |
Wagner – Die Walküre Ride of the Valkyries (arr. 2 for pianos) | Wagner – Die Walküre | |
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Wagner – Parsifal – Entrance into the Castle of the Holy Grail (arr. piano) | ||
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Wagner – Ride of the Valkyries – piano solo arr. | Wagner Ride of the Valkyries | |
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Wagner – Ride Of The Valkyries (Piano Solo) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Wagner – Tannhäuser Pilgrims Chorus – Richard Wagner Piano Solo with guitar Chords |
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Wagner – Tristan und Isolde – Isoldes Liebestod (arr. piano solo) |
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Wagner – Tristan und Isolde Prelude & Isoldes Liebestod (arr. for 2 pianos) | Wagner – Tristan und Isolde | |
Wagner Ouverture Thanhauser (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Wagner Siegfried’s Funeral March From Götterdämmerung (Piano Solo) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Wagner Tannhauser Piano Solo arr. | Wagner Tannhauser Piano Solo arr. | |
Wagner-Busoni – Funeral March (Il Crepuscolo degli Dei) arr. piano solo |
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Wagner-Busoni Funeral March |
Wagner, Richard TANNHÄUSER Piano solo arr. J. Doebber |
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Waiss Elena Andante From Mi Amigo El Piano (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Waiss, Elena Mi Amigo El Piano |
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Waitress (The Musical) – Opening Up Sara Bareilles (Voice and Piano) |
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Waitress sheet music |
Walking In The Footsteps Of Paul Chambers (Bass technique) |
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Walking In The Footsteps Of Paul Chambers |
Walt Disney Pictures Intro (Musescore File).mscz | ||
Walter Kent – White Cliffs Of Dover | ||
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Waltz – Noce i Dnie OST (Nights and days) | ||
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Waltz In E Minor Op. 39 No. 4 – Johannes Brahms (Musescore File).mscz | ||
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Wayne Shorter Artist Transcriptions The New Best of |
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we are the world |
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We Wish You A Merry Christmas | ||
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Weber – Der Freischütz (Ouvertüre) Piano Solo arr.mscz | ||
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Well Tempered Praise II by Mark Hayes |
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Well Tempered Praise III – Mark Hayes piano |
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Wes Montgomery Wine And Roses By Henry Mancini Solo Guitar |
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Wes Montgomery – Unit 7 Solo Transcription | Wes Montgomery – Unit 7 Solo Transcription | |
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Wes Montgomery – Artist Transcriptions for guitar by fred Sokolow |
Wes Montgomery – Au Privave transcription |
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Wes Montgomery – Days of wine and roses transcription |
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Wes Montgomery – Take The A Train transcription |
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Wes Montgomery Essential Jazz Lines (Mel Bay) |
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Wes Montgomery Essential Jazz Lines (Mel Bay) |
Wes Montgomery Jazz Guitar Artistry arr. by Zafar Soood with TABs |
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Wes Montgomery Jazz Guitar Artistry arr. by Zafar Soood |
Wes Montgomery The Early Years (Mel Bay) Jazz Guitar Solos Tablature |
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Wes Montgomery The Early Years (Mel Bay) Jazz Guitar Solos Tablature |
Wes Montgomery The End Of A Love Affair Guitar Tabs |
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West Side Story – Somewhere (Voice and Piano) Leonard Bernstein | West Side Story – Somewhere | |
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West Side Story Vocal Score – Leonard Bernstein |
Westlife – Cant Lose What You Never Had | ||
Westlife – Flying Without Wings | ||
Westlife – If I Let You Go | ||
Westlife – Mandy | ||
Westlife – You Raise Me Up Guitar arr. with TABs | Westlife – You Raise Me Up Guitar arr. with TABs | |
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Wet Wet Wet – Love Is All Around | ||
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Wham Make It Big Piano Vocal Guitar Chords |
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What a Wonderful World – Thiele & Weiss |
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What a wonderful world – Louis Armstrong.mscz | ||
What a Wonderful World (lead sheet) – Thiele & Weiss | What a Wonderful World (lead sheet) – Thiele & Weiss | |
What A Wonderful World (Musescore File).mscz | ||
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What A Wonderlful World (Lead Sheet) (Musescore File).mscz | ||
What You’re Made Of – Même Si (Lucie Silvas – Grégory Lemarchal | ||
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When A Man Loves A Woman Calvin Lewis & Andrew Wright |
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