Hi-yo Silver

Friday's CD was the Horace Silver Quintet's Blowin' The Blues Away, which also has two trio cuts. This hard-bop classic shows off Silver's skills as pianist, composer, and leader; it also contains some of the best work done by the other quintet members (Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor, Gene Taylor and Louis Hayes laying down the bottom on bass and drums respectively). The tracks range from the runaway train that opens the set ("Blowin' the Blues Away") to the gospel-rooted "Sister Sadie" to the romantic lyricism of "Peace" - and they all swing, some hard, some gently. It even has the now-ironic "Baghdad Blues"! Silver's compositions work the head and the body, like a good boxer, and he never lets you forget that the piano is a percussive instrument. He lays down changes and breaks up the rhythm with force, intelligence, and wit (not to mention funk), and gets fluid, dynamic music from the group seemingly without effort.

The disc is one of Blue Note's remastered originals in the Rudy Van Gelder series. These are by and large outstanding recordings from the fifties and sixties, and include important work by Silver, Coltrane, Rollins, Miles, Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey, and many others. They're very reasonably priced, sound great, have the original liner notes plus new ones, and include added tracks (often recorded at the original sessions - and not just alternate takes). They're a great way to extend a jazz collection or replace vinyl albums.