Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers is a 1956 repackage of 1955 10” LPs by jazz pianist Horace Silver with drummer Art Blakey and featuring Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and Doug Watkins on bass. By the time this repackage was released, this quintet had named themselves the Jazz Messengers, and the band name on the label reflected that. These recordings helped establish the hard bop style. Scott Yanow on Allmusic describes it as "a true classic".[4] Originally released as an LP, the album has subsequently been reissued on CD several times.

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
Compilation album by
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
ReleasedOctober 1956
RecordedDecember 13, 1954 (#1-3, 8)
February 6, 1955 (#4-7)
Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ
GenreJazz, hard bop
Length43:50
LabelBlue Note
BLP 1518
ProducerAlfred Lion
Horace Silver chronology
Horace Silver Trio and Art Blakey-Sabu
(1955)		 Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
(1956)		 Silver's Blue
(1956)
Jazz Messengers chronology
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
(1956)		 At the Cafe Bohemia, Vol. 1
(1956)
Horace Silver Quintet
Studio album by
Horace Silver
Released1955
RecordedDecember 13, 1954
Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ
LabelBlue Note
Horace Silver Quintet, Vol. 2
Studio album by
Horace Silver
Released1955
RecordedFebruary 6, 1955
Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ
LabelBlue Note
BLP 5058
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz [3]

Background

Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers was the first 12" Blue Note album released under Silver’s name. The album is a reissue of two previous 10" LPs -- Horace Silver Quintet (BLP 5058) and Horace Silver Quintet, Vol. 2 (BLP 5062) -- and the first sessions in which he used the quintet format which he would largely use for the rest of his career. The music on the album mixes bebop influences with blues and gospel feels.

One of the most successful tunes from the album, "The Preacher", was almost rejected for recording by producer Alfred Lion, who thought it was "too old-timey", but reinstated at the insistence of Blakey and Silver, who threatened to cancel the session until he had written another tune to record in its place if it wasn’t included.[5] According to Silver, the track showed that the band could "reach way back and get that old time, gutbucket barroom feeling with just a taste of the back-beat".[6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Horace Silver except where noted.

Side 1
No.TitleLength
1."Room 608" (*)5:22
2."Creepin' In" (*)7:26
3."Stop Time" (*)4:07
4."To Whom It May Concern" (**)5:11
Side 2
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
5."Hippy" (**) 5:23
6."The Preacher" (**) 4:18
7."Hankerin'" (**)Hank Mobley5:18
8."Doodlin'" (*) 6:45

(*) Originally released on 10" LP Horace Silver Quintet, Volume 3 (BLP 5058)
(**) Originally released on 10" LP Horace Silver Quintet Vol. 4 (BLP 5062)

Personnel

Performance

Production

References
  1. Allmusic review
  2. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 181. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  3. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008) The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th edition). Penguin. p. 1298.
  4. Allmusic: Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers – Review
  5. Silver, H. (2007): Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver, University of California Press, p. 79-80
  6. Rosenthal, D. H. (1992): Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music, 1955-1965, OUP, p. 38
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