Five-Star Collection... Silver and Blakey

Horace Silver

Horace Silver Trio • Vol. 2 / Art Blakey with Sabu

Almost a year has elapsed since the release of his first Horace Silver long playing record (Blue Note LP 5018). The year has seen new horizons open up for the brilliant 25-year-old pianist from Norwalk, Conn. While his LP debut was winning the plaudits of reviewers and fans, Horace enlarged his audience in Birdland and the country's other leading jazz clubs, playing with Lester Young and other noted combos. In recent months he has been allied with a new group formed by Art Blakey, the phenomenal drummer featured with him in the present set of selections.

On the six piano solos in this new LP, they are based on popular songs of a few years ago. Endowing them with his original rhythmic and harmonic changes when he embroiders the melody in the opening chorus, he proceeds to improvise on the chord pattern of the tune, and in each case the overall result, in effect, is as personal as if he had woven the fabric himself instead of merely cutting the cloth.

The other three piano solos are Silver originals.

A final word for the Third Man of this unique set of performances. Percy Heath has been praised many times before, both in our Blue Note comments and in every publication that deals with jazz. Never has his work been more discreet and dependable than in his accompaniments to Horace's solos here. A Heath bass performance is a study in metronomic stability. The Horace Silver Trio is indeed an equilateral triangle. *(from the liner notes)*

One of the most consistently energizing of the younger pianists, vigorously backed by Percy Heath and Art Blakey. Also included are the Blakey drum solo and the Blakey-Sabu duet previously starred (Down Beat, May 19). It pains my flinty, New England soul to give another five-star rating this month, but Mr. Silver cannot be denied. I assure you that five-star ratings are pried from me only after fierce struggling, but there is simply an unusual quantity of better-than-good original jazz being issued these days. *Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, July 14, 1954 [5 stars])*

Art Blakey - Sabu 

★★★★★ Message from Kenya

★★★★★ Nothing But the Soul

Soul is a dynamically absorbing solo by Blakey. On Kenya, Art is joined on conga drums and vocal by Sabu (Luis Martinez). The story of the number, according to Leonard Feather's notes for a forthcoming album in which it will be included, "was first told to Art by Moses Mann, a Nigerian drummer who worked in this country with Pearl Primus. The evocation, voiced dramatically in a mixture of Spanish and Swahili, tells of a hunter whose cries celebrate the news that he has captured more game than any other hunter in the village, in order to convince the girl he loves of his prowess".

It’s an exciting performance with or without the courtship bit. Sabu is 24, works usually with El Diablo, but has recorded before with June Christy, Dizzy, and Mary Lou Williams. He's also played with Valdés, Morales, and Señor Charles Parker. Sabu recently returned from Al Romero's expedition to South America on which Don Elliott was also included. This is his first large-scale record break, and he surely wails. (Blue Note 1626) *Nat Hentoff (Down Beat, May 19, 1954)*

Side 1

1 -  How About You

(Burton Lane, Ralph Freed)

2 - I Remember You

(Johnny Mercer, Victor Schertzinger)

3 - Silverware

(Horace Silver)

4 - Message From Kenya

(Art Blakey)

Side 2

5 - Opus De Funk

(Horace Silver)

6 - Nothing But The Soul

(Art Blakey)

7 - Buhaina

(Horace Silver)

8 - Day In Day Out

(Johnny Mercer, Reuben "Rube" Bloom)

#1, #2, #3, #5, #7, #8:

Horace Silver (piano), Percy Heath (bass), Art Blakey (drums).

#4:

Art Blakey (drums), Sabu (congas).

#6:

Art Blakey (solo drums).

Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City, November 23, 1953