Horace Silver Quintet: Song for My Father (blue vinyl, Blue Note 85 Classic Vinyl series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This limited blue vinyl edition comes from Blue Note's 85th anniversary collection, pressed in the EU with an obi strip. AllMusic calls it Silver's signature LP, and Scott Yanow named it one of the 17 essential hard bop recordings.

This edition

• Blue vinyl
• Limited edition
• Obi strip
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Plenty of jazz records are dedicated to someone; this one puts him on the cover. That's John Tavares Silver in the photograph, father of the pianist and a man born on the island of Maio in Cape Verde. His son wrote the title tune after a trip to Brazil, and its rolling bass line and gentle Latin lilt made it the best-known piece Horace Silver ever wrote.

The album catches his quintet in transition. The title song, "The Natives Are Restless Tonight" and "Que Pasa" come from an October 1964 session with Carmell Jones on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor, Teddy Smith on bass and Roger Humphries on drums, and Henderson also wrote the hard-swinging "The Kicker." "Calcutta Cutie" dates from October 1963 with the earlier line-up of Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor and Roy Brooks, and "Lonely Woman" is a quiet trio piece from the same day.

Two bands across a year, and it plays like one long, easy afternoon at the piano, all bluesy hooks and lean, punchy horn lines. We've framed worse family photos; none of them swing.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 6511732), a reissue of the 1965 album.