Horace Silver
★★★★
Silver In Seattle: Live At The Penthouse
BLUE NOTE. CD/DL/LP
Jazz pianist’s unheard 1965 gig exhumed.
One of the chief architects of hard bop, a dynamic jazz style blending bebop with blues and gospel elements, Silver co-founded The Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey before embarking on a solo career that helped establish Blue Note Records as one of the leading conduits for modern jazz. His biggest crossover success came when his album Song For My Father landed on the US pop and R&B charts in 1965; the same year, his quintet played Seattle’s Penthouse Club, where their performance was taped but never released until now. Beautifully recorded, Silver’s band is on fire, thanks to the inspired pairing of tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson with trumpeter Woody Shaw. Their exploratory solos, especially on an incendiary version of Silver’s biggest hit, Song For My Father, and the Latin-inflected The Cape Verdean Blues, are spellbinding. A glorious snapshot of Silver in his prime.