Horace Silver

American jazz pianist Horace Silver (1928-2014) made his debut in Stan Getz's trio in 1950, before joining drummer Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers and then the Miles Davis All Stars. Signed by the Blue Note label, his rhythmic style made him one of the precursors of the hard bop movement, with tracks like "The Preacher" and "Sister Sadie", on the album Blowin' the Blues Away (1959). His classic Song for My Father (1965), a tribute to his Cape Verdean roots, was bathed in soul, jazz and funk before its time. His orchestra featured Joe Henderson, Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Hank Mobley and Woody Shaw. This heyday was followed by a mystical crisis (he sang in That Healin' Feelin'), sounding the death knell of the Blue Note years. In 1980, Horace Silver founded his label Silveto(The Continuity of Spirit) and moved to California. Picked up by Columbia(It's Got to Be Funky) then Impulse!(A Prescription for the Blues) and Verve(Jazz Has a Sense of Humor in 1999), Horace Silver ended his career with honors before his death on June 18, 2014, at the age of 85.