1928 
Silver is born in Norwalk, Connecticut, learning both saxophone
and piano at school. His influences are varied, including Cape Verdean
folk music, blues singers, and bebop
and boogie pianists.
1954-present
Silver forms a cooperative band with Art
Blakey, called the Jazz Messengers. In 1955 Silver leaves to
form his own quintet. This ensemble is augmented in the late 1960s
and 1970s by brass, woodwind and voices.
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1950-1953
Silver's trio tours with Stan Getz in 1950, who is impressed when
visiting Connecticut. Silver settles in New York in 1951, and plays
with Coleman Hawkins, Lester
Young, Oscar Pettiford and Art
Blakey. He first records for the Blue
Note label in 1952, and he stays with them until 1980. |
STYLE
Horace Silver was one of the pioneers of
the hard bop school of jazz,
an amalgam of rhythm and blues, gospel and bebop. His piano style
influenced, among others, Bobby Timmons and Ramsey Lewis. He was the
most effective of the hard bop composers in the 1950s, and his bands
played mostly his compositions, some of which have become jazz standards. |