Music Monday: More Horace Silver

Last week, I enjoyed some classic hard bop to celebrate some centennials and birthdays. It’s great music and reflects the high water mark of the 1950s and 1960s hard bop jazz labels.

This prompted me to surf around in Horace Silver’s catalogue in recognition of what would have been his 96th birthday. As I enjoyed his classic Blue Note hard bop dates, I became intrigued by a trio of early 1970s Silver recordings that embody Blue Notes’ shift toward soul jazz and fusion. These albums featured Silver on RMI electric piano and vocals largely by Andy Bey. Randy Brecker and Cecil Bridgewater play trumpet and flugelhorn horn, Houston Person and Harold Vick on sax, Bob Cranshaw and Mickey Roker on bass and drums respectively.

The albums sold poorly and reviewers found Silver’s lyrics somewhere between vapid and pretentious (even if they almost begrudgingly appreciated his music). I enjoy these album and even find something pleasantly Maybe this speaks volumes about my own rather shallow intellect. 

As a result, the original releases of the three albums — That Healin’ Feelin’ (1970), Total Response (1971), and All (1972) — only remained in print for a few years. In 2004, 20 years ago, they were released together as a CD called United States of Mind.

Here are the three albums:

Phase 1: That Healin’ Feelin’ (1970)

Phase 2: Total Response (1971)

Phase 3: All (1972)

And because it was Sonny Rollins 94th birthday this past week, I’ll have to share The Bridge (1962) because … why not? 

youtu.be/3c3pBbmmaVw