Doin' The Thing At The (CD)
Horace Silver Quintet
Amoeba Review
John Schacht 05/15/2010
“We’d like for y’all to help us get in the groove,” Horace Silver asks a very receptive audience at the opening of this 1961 live date – as if that was ever an issue at one of the pianist’s gigs. These six tracks recorded at the iconic Greenwich Village club on Bleecker Street over two nights bubble with the Silver quintet’s potent, lock-step energy, featured a program of all-new Silver originals. With bassist Gene Taylor and Roy Brooks providing the propulsive big beats, trumpeter Blue Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Junior Cook take flight from the bandstand on blues swingers like the quick-tempo, minor-key title track and the super-slinky “Filthy McNasty,” Silver’s block chords and surging solos adding his usual funk to the proceedings. The walking blues of “Kiss Me Right” slows the pace some without sacrificing any soul, Cook and Mitchell showing off more of their lyrical sides. “The Gringo,” paired here with the quintet’s theme, “Cool Eyes” (added in full on the CD as a bonus track), is a spirited piece with a Latin flavor that doesn’t resort to over-played tropes, and bonus track “It Ain’t Supposed to Be Like That” is another deliciously greasy blues from Silver’s seemingly bottomless well of them. The audience’s reaction after each track is tumultuous – Silver himself even seems taken aback by their enthusiasm – and mirrors the energy the band put out. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, just a rock-solid set filled with inspired playing from one of the tightest jazz bands of the hard bop era.
Track Listing
Disc 1 Titles |
Artist |
Length |
---|---|---|
1.
Filthy McNasty
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 11:02 |
2.
Doin' the Thing
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 11:16 |
3.
Kiss Me Right
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 09:18 |
4.
The Gringo/The Theme: Cool Eyes
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 12:01 |
5.
It Ain't S'Posed To Be Like That
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 06:21 |
6.
Cool Eyes [Full Version]
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 03:56 |