HARD BOP ORIGINS: ART BLAKEY & HORACE SILVER

Calvin H. Neal, Jr.
January 13, 2017

          Contrary to popular belief, Bird and Dizzy were not the originators of bebop, but they carried the torch like champions. According to famed composer/ arranger/pianist/bandleader Mary Lou Williams, who was also a fixture at Minton’s Playhouse during the formative years of bebop, “Yes, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Christian, Kenny Clarke, Art Blakey and Idrees Sulliman (sic) were the first to play bebop. Next were Parker, Gillespie and Clyde Hart, now dead, who was a sensational on piano. After them came JJ Johnson, Bud Powell, Al Haig, Milt Jackson, Tadd Dameron, Leo Parker, Babs Gonzales, Max Roach, Kenny Dorham and Oscar Pettiford”. (Shapiro & Hentoff, 1955)

          Interestingly, two of the musicians that were mentioned in the Williams quote, Art Blakey and Max Roach, both drummers, were progenitors of hard bop. And  the two are further connected as both men’s early hard bop groups that featured the ill fated Clifford Brown as trumpeter.

          On the night of February 21, 1954, Blue Note Records recorded a live session at New York’s famed Birdland Club, which featured Art Blakey and his Quintet, recorded live by Rudy Van Gelder, this night music, released as Art Blakey Quintet: A Night At Birdland Vols. 1 & 2 is the session that started the reign of hard bop. That night, the Art Blakey Quintet consisted of a front line of alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson, who would becoming one of Blue Notes longest signed recording artist, and the lamentable trumpet sensation, Clifford Brown, who would also prove to be a driving force behind the birth of hard bop . Brown demonstrates why he was the rising star among trumpeters. His sound was articulate, muscular and fluent. Brown with his fiery new sound and youth was seemingly drawing the veterans away from bebop and closer to this “new thing”. The rhythm section featured pianist Horace Silver, (at this time Blakey’s collaborator, and would become one of the leading exponents of hard bop, leading his own groups after his 1956 split from Blakey), bassist Curly Russell and Blakey on drums.

          We know of Brown’s trajectory from here: http://jazzfromourperspective.blogspot.com/2017/01/hard-bop-origins-clifford-brown-max.html

          Art Blakey and Horace Silver went on to record hard bop, together and with their individual bands, for almost 50 years. Silver, longtime Blakey collaborator, was a leading exponents of hard bop, leading his own groups after his 1956 split from Blakey. Silver, born of Black and Portuguese descent in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1928 was discovered by Stan Getz and brought to New York in 1950. He and Blakey started playing and recording together in 1953 and co-led the original version of the Jazz Messengers in 1953 nominally led then, by Silver. After parting ways with Blakey in 1956, Silver led his own hard bop groups, usually quintet or sextets, for Blue Note from the 1950’s until the late 1970’-early 1980’s.

          The names that passed through the Silver camp are more than impressive. Blue Mitchell, Woody Shaw, Carmell Jones, Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Junior Cook, Clifford Jordan, Michael and Randy Brecker all were at one time very integral parts of the Horace Silver Quintet. Three Silver sets from the hard bop era feature three different front lines and show the type of talent that Silver groomed. A January 13, 1958 session, again from Van Gelder’s Hackensack studios, Further Explorations by the Horace Silver Quintet, featured a front line of trumpeter Art Farmer and Chicago bred tenor sax man, Clifford Jordan. Silver, Teddy Kotick on bass and Louis Hayes on drums round out the rhythm section. The Outlaw and Pyramids are standouts in this session. Following a trip to the Orient, the quintet, featuring Silver’s longest tenured front line; Miami native Blue Mitchell on trumpet and fellow Floridian, Pensacola’s own Junior Cook on trumpet, Gene Taylor on bass and John Harris on drums, went this time to, the then new, Van Gelder’s studios on July 13 & 14, 1958 and laid down The Tokyo Blues, Van Gelder having a few years earlier moved from his parent’s home in Hackensack, into a full-fledged studio in Englewood Cliffs, NJ Silver. 

        

Then, in sessions that spanned October 31, 1963, January 28, 1964 and October 26, 1964, all recorded in Englewood Cliffs, gave us perhaps Silver’s most well-known project. Song For My Father is by far the most well recognized of Silver compositions. Song For My Father  featured two different versions of the Silver Quintet. Six of the ten tracks, including the intoxicating title track feature Silver, Carmell Jones on trumpet, Joe Henderson, tenor sax, Teddy Smith on bass and drummer Roger Humphries. The other four were Silver with his classic quintet, with the same personnel as on Tokyo Blues, only Roy Brooks had taken his place as regular drummer, replacing John Harris. 

           
       
              Blakey, born in Pittsburg Blakey and his Jazz Messengers, like Silver, played hard bop for the next five decades. Blakey as well groomed some of hard bops’ finest artists. Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Curtis Fuller, Bobby Timmons, Cedar Walton, Chuck Mangione, Keith Jarrett and the brothers Marsalis, Wynton and Branford, were all graduates of Blakey’s “Hard Bop Academy”.  The first Jazz messenger recording was led in name by Horace Silver. Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers was recorded for Blue Note at the Hackensack, New Jersey studio of Rudy Van Gelder on November 13, 1954 and February 6, 1955. Silver and Blakey were joined by trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who was a star in bebop, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley, referred to by jazz critic Leonard Feather as the “middleweight champion of tenor sax” and bassist Doug Watkins, a rising star who died tragically in an automobile accident at age 27 in 1962.  This incarnation brought a funky, soulful new sound, thanks to classic Silver compositions The Preacher and Doodlin’, both of which have become jazz standards. Silver and Blakey recorded with Hank Mobley for his March 27, 1955 session that was released as Hank Mobley Quartet (The Jazz Messengers sans Kenny Dorham). 

              

               The last Jazz Messengers recording with Silver, Watkins, Dorham and Mobley was a classic set recorded at the Café Bohemia club in New York. The next Jazz Messengers recording was a session Blakey recorded for Columbia on December 12 & 13, 1956 in NYC. Recorded November 23, 1955, The Jazz Messengers At The Cafe Bohemia, found the entire group in fine for and is a very fitting finale to this Messenger crew. Hard Bop, featured  Blakey’s new “Messengers”, little known Bill Hardman on trumpet, altoist Jackie McLean, New Jersey native Sam Dockery on piano and “Spanky” DeBrest on bass. Silver recorded two sessions for Epic Records in the summer of 1956. Silver’s Blue is the result of the sessions which took place July 2, 17 & 18, 1956. The personnel on these dates include Silver’s Jazz Messenger comrades Mobley and Watkins, while Donald Byrd and Joe Gordon shared trumpet duties, with Art Taylor and bebop legend Kenny “Klook” Clarke on drums. Silver and his Quintet first recorded for Blue Note on November 10, 1956 for the session that became 6 Pieces Of Silver. This Silver quintet was just the Jazz Messengers without Blakey and Dorham, as Louis Hayes was now on drums and the spirited Donald Byrd was playing trumpet. As with most Silver recordings of the era, this session introduced the classics Cool Eyes and one of Silver’s most famous compositions, Senor Blues.

          Blakey and his Messengers recorded for Pacific Jazz, Cadet, Vik(RCA Records), Jubilee, Atlantic and Bethlehem, replacing Mclean with Chicago tenor Johnny Griffin, before Blakey returned to Blue Note with a new band. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, better known as Moanin’, recorded October 30, 1958, and was the first in a succession of classic Jazz Messenger hard bop classics. This incarnation of the Messengers was young sensation Lee Morgan on trumpet, composer/arranger/tenor sax man Benny Golson, the bluesy Bobby Timmons, composer of the classic Moanin’, on piano and the relatively unknown at the time Jymie Merritt on bass. (All four Messengers were Philadelphia natives) The bands of both Blakey and Silver went thru many lineup changes, but a couple deserve note. 

          Blakey’s Jazz Messengers featuring Benny Golson should be acclaimed not only for being the first of Balkey's Messenger's to record on Blue Note, but for the compositions of Benny Golson. During his tenure with Blakey, Golson was music director/arranger and main composer and his Messenger compositions include jazz standards Along Came Betty and Blues March. Golson composed other jazz standards such as I Remember Clifford, Stablemates, Whisper Not and Are You Real. The dynamic young trumpeter

          Lee Morgan, who had played with Dizzy’s band at the tender age of 18, had seven leader sessions of his own by the time he joined Blakey. His fierce, dominant hard bop trumpet made Morgan the hottest young trumpeter on the scene. The bluesy, gospel-inflected piano of Timmons and his compositions (Moanin, Dat Dere and This Here) made him another name to watch. Merritt keep things grounded with his strong, steady bass lines. When Golson left in 1959 to co-found The Jazztet with Art Farmer http://jazzfromourperspective.blogspot.com/search?q=the+Jazztet

          Wayne Shorter took over not only tenor duties, but also became music director and main composers. Shorter, whose own Blue Note leader sessions are must haves; left the Messengers with such standards as Lester Left Town, Free For All, Sleeping Dancer Sleep On, Tell It Like It Is and Children Of The Night. By 1961, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, trombonist Curtis Fuller and pianist Cedar Walton joined Blakey, Shorter and Merritt. In 1964, another Philly native, Reggie Workman, replaced Merritt. Shorter stayed with Blakey for five years, leaving to join Miles Davis’ “2^nd classic quintet’, which also featured Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. 

          Curtis Fuller, Freddie Hubbard and Cedar Walton were also important composers during their stays with Blakey. Trombonist Fuller contributed classic compositions that included Arabia, The Egyptian and The High Priest. Cedar Walton’s memorable compositions include Mosaic and Ugetsu. Hubbard, who ably took over the trumpet chair from Lee Morgan, was responsible for Messenger hits Crisis and The Core. Blakey and a Jazz Messenger group recorded until 1989. Blakey died in October of 1990 at age 71. The final recording by a Horace Silver quintet was the 1998 Jazz Has a Sense of Humor recorded on the Verve label.

          Though only discussed among jazz lovers, Blakey’s Messengers and Silver’s quintets should be as well recognized as Trane or Miles.