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| Tell a Friend Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:02 pm Post subject: The Horace Silver Quintet Review |
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The Horace Silver Quintet
Song for My Father
If there was ever an album for a sunny day this has got to be it! And what with there being more than a slight chill in the air already any way to bring back the sense of summer is appreciated. These light and breezy tracks, most of which are penned by Horace Silver himself, are just a summer day incarnated and this was one of the most popular albums released by Blue Note records. The finger-snapping drumbeats and the light catchy piano riffs are easy to listen to, yet when you listen to them carefully there are anything but easy to play!
As with many Blue Note records, the horns on this album are tight and yet don’t sound forced or hesitant. Joe Henderson appears on tenor sax and has such a rich and clear tone, which adds to the clarity of his finger-racing improvisations. Henderson’s own track ‘The Kicker’ is the best to illustrate his abilities as a great saxophonist. Yet the balance between the complexity of the improvised sections and the easy head section makes the tracks easier to listen to if you’re unfamiliar with the jazz form.
Horace Silver’s quintet features some of the best jazz musicians around at the time. Joe Henderson, tenor sax, Carmel Jones, trumpet, Teddy Smith, bass, and Rodger Humphries, drums, feature on the fist five tracks on this album and were later recordings whereas Junior Cook, tenor sax, Blue Mitchell, trumpet, Eugene Taylor, bass, and Roy Brooks, drums can be heard on the earlier recorded tracks, which are tracks 6-10. There was no real exciting reason that the line-up was changed halfway through recording the album, and both halves of the album are equally well played and recorded.
This album was inspired by a trip to Brazil that Horace Silver made and it covers a wide variety of moods and styles, despite being only 10 tracks long. The upbeat rhythms of ‘The Kicker’ and ‘The Natives are Restless Tonight’ contrast wonderfully with the almost melancholy tunes such as ‘Lonely Woman’. ‘Lonely woman’ is a beautifully lyrical piano solo and seems to pour the sadness from each of his phrases where as the drums and bass offer almost comforting support to the lines. A perfect illustration of Horace Silver’s leading abilities.
This album is a must for all sax players, jazz students, jazz lovers and music lovers of all ages!
Reviewed by Rachael Forsyth for UKEvents.net |
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