Horace Silver: Song For My Father (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Classic Vinyl Series reissue is mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl in Germany. The title track is Silver's best-known tune, and the album collects top marks from DownBeat and the Penguin Guide to Jazz.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

The man on the cover isn't Horace Silver; it's his dad, John Tavares Silver, who was born on Maio, one of the Cape Verde Islands. His son paid him back with one of the most famous tunes in jazz, a loping, bossa-tinged piano vamp that grew out of a trip Silver made to Brazil and has been borrowed, quoted and hummed by just about everybody since.

Alfred Lion produced the album at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs across three sessions between October 1963 and October 1964. Those sessions caught the quintet in transition, so you get two great bands for the price of one (the older group with Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook, and the new lineup with Carmell Jones on trumpet and a young Joe Henderson on tenor, whose solo on the title track is a masterclass all on its own). Henderson's "The Kicker" and Silver's "Que Pasa" are just as essential, and "Calcutta Cutie" swings beautifully.

AllMusic calls it Silver's signature LP, with his writing "at his tightest and catchiest," and Scott Yanow counted it among the 17 essential hard bop recordings. As for the sleeve, Dad steals the show, and judging by the music, his son was perfectly happy to let him.

Also at Kops: more Horace Silver on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 0744043), a reissue of the 1965 album.