45 Facts About Horace Silver

Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.

Horace Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing.

Several changes occurred in the early 1970s: Horace Silver disbanded his group to spend more time with his wife and to concentrate on composing; he included lyrics in his recordings; and his interest in spiritualism developed.

Horace Silver left Blue Note after 28 years, founded his own record label, and scaled back his touring in the 1980s, relying in part on royalties from his compositions for income.

Horace Silver was born on September 2,1928, in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Horace Silver's mother, Gertrude, was from Connecticut; his father, John Tavares Silver, was born on the island of Maio, Cape Verde, and emigrated to the United States as a young man.

Horace Silver was a maid and sang in a church choir; he worked for a tire company.

Horace Silver had a much older half-brother, Eugene Fletcher, from his mother's first marriage, and was the third child for his parents, after John, who lived to six months, and Maria, who was stillborn.

Horace Silver began playing the piano in his childhood and had classical music lessons.

Horace Silver's father taught him the folk music of Cape Verde.

At the age of 11, Horace Silver became interested in becoming a musician, after hearing the Jimmie Lunceford orchestra.

Horace Silver played gigs locally on both piano and tenor saxophone while still at school.

Horace Silver was rejected for military service by a draft board examination that concluded that he had an excessively curved spine, which interfered with his saxophone playing.

Horace Silver's break came in 1950, when his trio backed saxophonist Stan Getz at a club in Hartford: Getz liked Horace Silver's band and recruited them to tour with him.

The saxophonist gave Horace Silver his recording debut, in December 1950, for a quartet date.

Horace Silver worked for short periods with tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins, before meeting altoist Lou Donaldson, with whom he developed his bebop understanding.

Horace Silver won the Down Beat critics' new star award for piano players in 1954, and appeared at the first Newport Jazz Festival, substituting for John Lewis in the Modern Jazz Quartet.

Horace Silver's early 1950s recordings demonstrate that Powell was a major pianistic influence, but this had waned by the middle of the decade.

Later that year, he left Blakey after one and a half years, in part because of the heroin use prevalent in the band, which Horace Silver did not want to be involved in.

The quintet, with various line-ups, continued to record, helping Horace Silver to build his reputation.

Horace Silver wrote almost all of the material the band played; one of these, "Senor Blues", "officially put Horace Silver on the map", in the view of critic Scott Yanow.

Horace Silver crouched over the piano as the sweat poured out, with his forelock brushing the keys and his feet pounding.

Around this time, Horace Silver composed music for a television commercial for the drink Tab.

Early in 1964, Horace Silver visited Brazil for three weeks, an experience he credited with increasing his interest in his heritage.

Horace Silver had met Barbara Jean Dove in 1968 and married her two years later.

Horace Silver became increasingly interested in spiritualism from the early 1970s.

Horace Silver included lyrics in more of his compositions at this point, although these were sometimes regarded as doggerel or proselytizing.

Horace Silver's stay was the longest in the label's history.

Horace Silver formed Emerald at the same time, a label for straight-ahead jazz, but it was short-lived.

Horace Silver stated in the same year that he had reduced his touring to four months a year, so that he could spend more time with his son.

Horace Silver continued to write lyrics for his new albums, although these were not always included on the recordings themselves.

Douglas reported that Horace Silver seldom gave direct verbal guidelines about the music, preferring to lead through playing.

Rockin' with Rachmaninoff, a musical work featuring dancers and narration, written by Horace Silver and choreographed and directed by Donald McKayle, was staged in Los Angeles in 1991.

Horace Silver came close to dying soon after its release: he was hospitalized with a previously undiagnosed blood clot problem, but went on to record Pencil Packin' Papa, containing a six-piece brass section, in 1994.

Horace Silver received a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award in 1995, and in the following year was added to Down Beats Jazz Hall of Fame and received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.

Horace Silver was again unwell in 1997, so was unable to tour to promote his records.

One continuation from his early career was that Horace Silver recorded his own compositions for his later albums and they were typically new, rather than re-workings of previous releases.

Horace Silver performed in public for the first time in four years in 2004, appearing with an octet at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York.

Horace Silver was not often seen in public after this.

In 2006, Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver, was published by the University of California Press.

In 2007, it was revealed that Horace Silver had Alzheimer's disease.

Horace Silver died of natural causes in New Rochelle, New York, on June 18,2014, aged 85.

Early in his career, Horace Silver composed contrafacts and blues-based melodies.

Horace Silver was among the most influential jazz musicians of his lifetime.

Horace Silver was an influence as a pianist: his first Blue Note recording as leader "redefined the jazz piano, which up until then was largely modeled on the dexterity and relentless attack of Bud Powell", in Myers' words.