Product Description
Horace Silver had not seen the insides of a recording studio for 750 days before laying down Silver 'n Brass. His previous record, In Pursuit of the 27th Man, was unusual in its instrumentation (vibes) and for including a number of non-Silver tunes. (But the cover of Liberated Brother, from that record, did go on to become the backbone of his late 70s live shows.) So, as a prolific composer, Horace had a large backlog of tunes at his disposal as he entered the studio in January, 1975 and the 6 cuts on Silver 'n Brass are among his best.
Horace broke the sessions into two: a straight-ahead post-bop session with Ron Carter (whose chubby bass spews artifacts all over the place, in his best late-70s style) and Al Foster on drums and another, more commercial session featuring Bob Cranshaw and Bernard Purdie. Wade Marcus later added horn overdubs employing an absolute who's-who of LA session players. (Word quickly got out among the cognoscenti, and Silver 'n Brass became hugely popular among fellow musicians, much to Horace's delight.)
Highlights of the disc include: the composer's propulsive piano solo on Dameron's Dance, young Bob Berg's paint-peeling tenor solos (especially riveting on Kissin' Cousins) and the driving flat 9th chords of Adjustment. The tune Barbara, a gorgeous waltz dedicated to Horace's then-wife, has become a latter-day standard of sorts (Amazon's MP3 store lists a whole bunch of covers). Sophisticated Hippie, a tribute to Duke Ellington, features quite a rhythm-section workout in its closing vamp: this session would be the only time that Horace and Bernard's paths would intersect. There are no vocals this time out, just fully arresting post-bop of a high order.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.