Senor Blues – 1959
Horace Silver
The pianist and his most famous group plays one of his hits
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Horace Silver (1928-2014) was an original as a pianist (sounding nothing like Bud Powell, the main influence of the 1950s), songwriter and bandleader.
Silver wrote many fine originals in his career (including “Song For My Father”) with “Senor Blues” being one of his most popular.
Siver led a string of superior two-horn quintets with his best-known group featuring trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor-saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Louis Hayes (later succeeded by Roy Brooks).
In 1956 he made his first recording of “Senor Blues,” a song that stayed in his repertoire for decades.
In 1959, the same year that his quintet with Mitchell and Cook performed “Senor Blues” for a filmed version at the Newport Jazz Festival, he played this version at a concert in Europe.
The tight arrangement is memorable while Silver plays a spontaneous and infectious solo.
-Scott Yanow
