Horace-Scope (CD)
Horace Silver Quintet
Amoeba Review
John Schacht 05/15/2010
This 1960 date is yet another high-quality hard bop date from Horace Silver, who turned them out so frequently some – like Horace-Scope -- tend to just get lost in the mix. While it never reached the notoriety of Songs For My Father or Cape Verdean Blues, Silver’s classic quintet (or most of it, since Roy Brooks replaced Louis Hayes on drums beginning with this date) delivers another swinging set of soulful grooves and double-time tempos. There’s a bit of recycling here – rare for the prolific composer -- but mostly in name only. Two of three tracks – “Horace-Scope” and “Yeah!” – surfaced previously at a 1952 trio date, and “Nica’s Dream” (a long-running standard in Silver’s songbook) first appeared in 1956 on the original Jazz Messengers’ final recording for Columbia. The first two get the quintet treatment, of course: The title track features an elegant theme that sacrifices none of Silver’s compositional funk; the latter taken at a brisk pace that shows off the whole band’s lock-step camaraderie. “Where You At?” is one of those frenetic, funky Silver numbers he seemed to be able to pull from his hat whenever he chose, this one’s stop-start theme and intricate rhythms (Brooks is great here) recalling rush hour traffic. On “Without You,” Silver shows off his fine touch on the minor-key blues as the only soloist, and disc-opener “Strollin’” is taken at a relaxed gait, trumpeter Blue Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Junior Cook offering sinuous solos over Gene Taylor’s strolling bass and the leader’s harmonically diverse block chords. This version of “Nica’s Dream” is half as long as the Jazz Messengers’, but still swings in the traditional Silver fashion. And that’s what typified this band and, indeed, Silver’s entire 50s and 60s output.
Track Listing
Disc 1 Titles |
Artist |
Length |
---|---|---|
1.
Strollin'
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 04:59 |
2.
Where You At?
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 05:37 |
3.
Without You
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 04:50 |
4.
Horace-Scope
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 04:43 |
5.
Yeah!
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 06:28 |
6.
Me and My Baby
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 05:58 |
7.
Nica's Dream
|
Horace Silver Quintet | 06:48 |