Complete Live Horace Silver Concert From Newport

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When Horace Silver and Art Blakey formed an unlikely co-operative band called the Jazz Messengers in 1955, their goal was to make jazz accessible again to listeners by infusing their music with a blues and gospel feeling, thus ushering in the hard bop era. When the pair parted ways the next year, each went on to record as leaders, Blakey keeping the name Jazz Messengers and Silver giving birth to his quintet, which until he enlisted trumpeter Blue Mitchell in 1959 went through periodic personnel shifts. In 1956, "Senor Blues" not only made him famous but also a marquee performer.

In fact, in 1958, Silver and his recently assembled new quintet-including the supremely talented but under-recognized trumpeter Louis Smith along with tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor and drummer Louis Hayes-headlined the Newport Jazz Festival, performing the final set of the Sunday show with extended renditions of "Senor Blues, " as well as "Cool Eyes" (also from Six Pieces of Silver), "The Outlaw" and "Tippin'." Previously unreleased, this historic concert-a rare official document of Silver in a live setting-sees the light of day for the first time on Blue Note Records as Live at Newport '58.

The album is produced by Michael Cuscuna, who originally discovered the documented concert in the Library of Congress' tape archives of the Voice of America broadcasts. He then tracked down a professionally recorded three-track master in Columbia Records' vault (the entire Newport Festival that year was recorded under the supervision of George Avakian). Live at Newport '58 continues the informal Blue Note series of valuable previously unreleased recordings, such as Thelonious Monk Quartet With John Coltrane At Carnegie Hall and Charles Mingus Sextet With Eric Dolphy: Cornell 1964.

In his liner notes, Cuscuna writes, "Horace Silver is a dichotomy. He is one of the most meticulous and organized musicians in modern jazz and yet one of the funkiest." Explaining the album's significance, Cuscuna says "I came upon this Newport performance and was struck by the fact that a full performance during Louis Smith's brief tenure with the group existed and that they actually performed 'Tippin, ' a little known Silver original that was recorded three weeks earlier as the flip side of the vocal version of 'Senor Blues.'"

Going on to explain how Silver had come up with the song and why he neglected to put it on his next album, Cuscuna says that when he spoke with Silver years later, he told him, "We were between albums, so I thought I should write something for the back side of the single instead of using something off the older albums. I guess that it was forgotten by the time we were planning the next album."

Noting that he has high standards as far as fidelity and performance go, Cuscuna says, "I want to continue finding material that offers something unique. This was Horace at his glory. His solos are great and you can hear the way he used to comp, stoking the fire for the rest of the band. Hearing him live, you realize what a great piano player he was. Horace was a perfectionist who didn't like to record live, so this is a rare opportunity to hear him in this setting."

Indeed, live recordings are extremely rare in Silver's recorded output. His Blue Note album Doin' The Thing: At The Village Gate from 1961 stands as the only other official live document of Silver in concert that has ever been released.

Cuscuna notes further special qualities about Live at Newport '58: "This features unique personnel that includes Louis Smith who is amazing here. He recorded a couple of albums for Blue Note around this time, and then left New York to teach. There's also a unique repertoire, with "Tippin'' and 'The Outlaw, ' which is a great tune that Horace didn't perform regularly and that has been a woefully neglected composition in his canon. This all adds up to special performance that contributes to Horace's legacy."

Cuscuna concludes his liners by writing: "It would be easy to call this Horace's golden era, but he never stopped writing great compositions or putting together great bands. But this early chapter in the history of [his quintet] is a wonderful performance and a valuable addition to his discography."

photo of Horace Silver by Francis Wolff Mosaic Images
HORACE SILVER - Live at Newport '58 - Blue Note 03163 February 5, 2008

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