Personalities | Horace Silver | Fifties | Jazz & Blues

(Piano, b. 1928)

Horace Silver stands with Art Blakey as the progenitor of the earthier development of bebop, known as hard bop. His Hartford-based trio was hired by Stan Getz in 1950 and he moved to New York the following year. He began recording for Blue Note in 1952, a relationship that would last for 28 years. He formed a band with Art Blakey that became the latter’s Jazz Messengers when the pianist left in 1956.

Like the Jazz Messengers, Silver’s quintets became a nursery for new talent as well as a vehicle for his own compositions; many of his tunes became part of the standard jazz repertoire. He incorporated the influence of his father’s native Cape Verdean folk music, most famously on ‘Song For My Father’. His more experimental music of the 1970s was less well-received, but he returned to hard bop from the early 1980s and remains a successful artist, although increasingly hampered by arthritis.

Styles & Forms | Fifties | Jazz & Blues
Personalities | Zoot Sims | Fifties | Jazz & Blues

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues, founding editor Howard Mandel

AUTHORITATIVE

An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...

CURATED

Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.

Rock, A Life Story

Rock, A Life Story

The ultimate story of a life of rock music, from the 1950s to the present day.

David Bowie

David Bowie

Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers his life, music, art and movies, with a sweep of incredible photographs.