Author Ralph Ellison once wrote, “True jazz is an art of individual assertion within and against the group. Each true jazz moment springs from a contest in which each artist challenges all the rest; each solo flight, or improvisation, represents a definition of his identity: as individual, as member of the collectivity, and as a link in the chain of tradition. Thus, because jazz finds its very life in an endless improvisation upon traditional materials, the jazzman must lose his identity even as he finds it.” Not gonna argue with THAT. This week's Needle Drop Record won't argue with it, either.
As I was building the music library for Record Bin, I knew I wanted to include some jazz... but my tastes in that arena are specific, if not peculiar. Classic hard bop was the solution and what better album to illustrate why than Horace Silver's Song for My Father.
Released by Blue Note in 1965, Song for My Father was, by most accounts, the zenith of Silver's absolutely illustrious career. As AllMusic.com notes, “Silver was always a master at balancing jumping rhythms with complex harmonies for a unique blend of earthiness and sophistication, and Song for My Father has perhaps the most sophisticated air of all his albums.” Nowhere is that sophistication more evident than in his use of global rhythms, as on the title track... which you may recognize from a certain Steely Dan hit.
This album was born during a season of rebirth for Silver, himself... or his backing band, more specifically. In the process of letting go his classic quintet in favor of a new ensemble, Silver incorporates a bit of both bands on Song for My Father. But Silver's catchy compositions thread the whole together, making for an easy, elegant listen... even for the unstudied jazz fan, like myself.
AllMusic.com calls this album, “necessary for all jazz collections [as] mainstream hard bop rarely comes as good as Song for My Father.”
Hear the whole episode March 4 at 6 am, 12 pm, and 6 pm PT.
