Horace Silver (born September 2, 1928), born Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver in Norwalk, Connecticut, is an American jazz pianist and composer. His father was from Cape Verde and his mother was born in New Canaan, Connecticut and is of Irish-African descent. He is known for his distinctive humorous and funky playing style and for his pioneering contributions to hard bop. Silver was influenced by a wide range of musical styles, notably gospel music, African music, and Latin American music and sometimes ventured into the soul jazz genre.

Silver began his career as a tenor saxophonist but later switched to piano. His tenor saxophone playing was highly influenced by Lester Young, and his piano style by Bud Powell. Silver was discovered in the Sundown Club in Hartford, Connecticut in 1950 by saxophonist Stan Getz. Getz was playing at the club with Silver’s trio backing him up. Getz liked Silver’s band and brought them on the road, eventually recording three of Silver’s compositions. It was Getz with whom Silver made his recording debut.

He moved to New York City in 1951, where he worked at the jazz club Birdland on Monday nights, when different musicians would come together and informally jam. During that year he met the executives of the label Blue Note while working as a sideman. He eventually signed with them where he remained until 1980. It was in New York that he formed a co-operatively run group with Art Blakey.

In 1952 and 1953 he recorded three sessions with his own trio, featuring Blakey on drums and Gene Ramey, Curly Russell and Percy Heath on bass. The drummer-pianist team lasted for four years; during this time, Silver and Blakey recorded at Birdland (A Night at Birdland) with Clifford Brown and Lou Donaldson, at the Bohemia with Kenny Dorham and Hank Mobley, and also in the studios. From this point onwards, Silver recorded for the Blue Note label, eventually becoming close to label boss Alfred Lion who allowed him greater input on aspects of album production than was usual at the time. He was also a member of the Miles Davis All Stars, recording the notable Walkin' in 1954.

During his years with the label Blue Note, Silver helped create the rhythmically forceful branch of jazz known as "hard bop", which combined elements of rhythm-and-blues and gospel music with jazz. He based much of his own writing on blues and gospel—the latter is particularly prominent on one of his biggest tunes, "The Preacher." While his compositions at this time featured surprising tempo shifts and a range of melodic ideas, they immediately caught the attention of a wide audience. Silver's own piano playing easily shifted from aggressively percussive to lushly romantic within just a few bars. At the same time, his sharp use of repetition was funky even before that word could be used in polite company. Along with Silver's own work, his bands often featured such rising jazz stars as saxophonists Junior Cook and Hank Mobley, trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and drummer Louis Hayes. Some of his key albums from this period included Horace Silver Trio (1953), Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers (1955), Six Pieces of Silver (1956) and Blowin' The Blues Away (1959), which includes his famous, "Sister Sadie." He also combined jazz with a sassy take on pop through the 1961 hit, "Filthy McNasty."

Silver’s early influences included the styles of boogie-woogie and the blues. It includes but is not limited to Art Tatum, Teddy Wilson, Nat “King” Cole, and Thelonious Monk. He liked to quote other musicians within his own work and would often recreate famous solos in his original pieces as something of a tribute to the greats he was influenced by.

During Silver's time with Blakey he rarely recorded as a leader, but after splitting with him in 1956 formed his own hard bop quintet as first featuring the same line-up as Blakey's Jazz Messengers with 18-year-old Louis Hayes subbing for Blakey. The quintet's second line-up featured Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook.

In 1963 Silver created a new group featuring Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone and Carmell Jones on trumpet; this quintet recorded most of the best-known album by Silver — Song for My Father. When Jones left to settle in Europe, the trumpet chair was filled by a young Woody Shaw and Tyrone Washington replaced Henderson.

Silver's compositions, catchy and very strong harmonically, gained popularity while his band gradually switched to funk and soul.This change of style was not readily accepted by many long-time fans. The quality of several albums of this era, such as The United States of Mind (on which Silver himself provided vocals on several tracks), is to this day contested by fans of the genre. Silver's spirituality displayed on these albums also has a mixed reputation. However, many of these later albums featured many interesting musicians (such as Randy Brecker). Silver was the last musician to be signed to Blue Note in the 1970s before it went into temporary abeyance. In 1981 he formed his own short-lived label, Silveto.

Silver's music was a major force in modern jazz on at least four counts. He was one of the first pioneers of the style known as Hard Bop, influencing such pianists as Bobby Timmons, Les McCann, and Ramsey Lewis. Second, the instrumentation of his quintet (trumpet, tenor sax, piano, double bass, and drums) served as a model for small jazz groups from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s. Further, Silver's ensembles provided an important training ground for young players, many of whom (such as Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, Junior Cook, and Joe Henderson) later led similar groups of their own. Finally, Silver refined the art of composing and arranging for his chosen instrumentation to a level of craftsmanship as yet unsurpassed in jazz.

As social and cultural upheavals shook the nation during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Silver responded to these changes through music. He commented directly on the new scene through a trio of records called United States of Mind (1970-1972) that featured the spirited vocals of Andy Bey. The composer got deeper into cosmic philosophy as his group, Silver 'N Strings, recorded Silver 'N Strings Play The Music of the Spheres (1979).

After Silver's long tenure with Blue Note ended, he continued to create vital music. The 1985 album, Continuity of Spirit (Silveto), features his unique orchestral collaborations. In the 1990s, Silver directly answered the urban popular music that had been largely built from his influence on It's Got To Be Funky (Columbia, 1993). Now living surrounded by a devoted family in California, Silver has received much of the recognition due a venerable jazz icon. In 2005, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) gave him its President's Merit Award.

*"Doodlin'" *"The Preacher" *"Nica's Dream" *"Opus de Funk" *"Safari" *"Sister Sadie" *"Blowin' the Blues Away" *"Song for My Father" *"Quicksilver" *"The Dragon Lady" *"Nutville" *"Horacescope"

*Horace Silver Trio (1952/1953) *Six Pieces Of Silver (1956) *The Stylings Of Silver (1957) *Further Explorations By The Horace Silver Quintet (1958) *Finger Poppin' With The Horace Silver Quintet (1959) *Blowin' the Blues Away (1959) *Horace-Scope (1960) *Doin' The Thing, The Horace Silver Quintet At The Village Gate (1961) *The Tokyo Blues (1962) *Silver's Serenade (1963) *Song for My Father (1964) *The Cape Verdean Blues (1965) *The Jody Grind (1966) *Serenade To A Soul Sister (1968) *The United States of Mind (1970) *In Pursuit Of The 27th Man (1972) *It's Gotta Be Funky (1993) *Pencil Packin' Papa (1994) *The Hardbop Grandpop (1996) *A Prescription For The Blues (1997) *Jazz Has A Sense Of Humor (1999)

* "What is jazz music but another language?" * "Every present moment is embroidered on the warp of the past and the future’s woof."

*Official site *Horace Silver at the Hard Bop Home Page *Horace Silver entry at the Jazz Discography Project * *Listening In: An Interview with Horace Silver by Bob Rosenbaum, Los Angeles, December 1981 (PDF file)