Horace Silver Quintet - Song For My Father (2021 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series LP)

Horace Silver Quintet - Song For My Father | Vinyl LP - 2021 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series (180g, Kevin Gray/Cohearent Audio, Optimal Media GmbH)

• Horace Silver's most celebrated album, drawn from two separate Blue Note sessions: October 1963 and January and October 1964 at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs
• The bossa nova rhythm and Cape Verdean melodic line of "Song for My Father" — written as a tribute to Silver's father — became one of the most-sampled piano vamps in jazz; Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (1974) draws directly from its bass ostinato
• "The Kicker" is the sole non-Silver original on the album, written by Joe Henderson; "Lonely Woman" (B3) is a Silver composition unrelated to Ornette Coleman's piece of the same name
• 2021 Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series, mastered from the original analogue tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, pressed at Optimal Media GmbH on 180g vinyl

Song for My Father was assembled from two Blue Note sessions recorded a year apart, using two different quintet lineups. The three tracks that open and close the LP sides — "Calcutta Cutie" and "Lonely Woman" — come from the October 1963 session with Junior Cook on tenor, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Gene Taylor on bass and Roy Brooks on drums. The remaining four tracks, including the title piece, were recorded in January and October 1964 with a completely rebuilt quintet: Joe Henderson on tenor, Carmell Jones on trumpet, Teddy Smith on bass and Roger Humphries on drums. Alfred Lion produced both sessions; Rudy Van Gelder engineered at his Englewood Cliffs studio.

The title track opens the record. Silver wrote it after a visit to Brazil introduced him to bossa nova rhythms, and he drew the melodic line from his father's Cape Verdean heritage — John Tavares Silva came from the island of Maio. The subtitle "Cantiga Para Meu Pai" means "Song for My Father" in Portuguese. The bass ostinato in F minor became one of the most sampled bass lines in jazz: Steely Dan used it as the foundation for "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" on Pretzel Logic (1974). Henderson's tenor across the 1964 tracks plays with a clarity and phrasing that distinguishes him immediately from his predecessor — "The Kicker" (B2), the one track on the album not written by Silver, is Henderson's own composition. This 2021 pressing is part of the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series, mastered from the original analogue tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal Media GmbH.