Posted by Orin Kerr:
Horace Silver Quintet Playing Senor Blues:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_12_24-2006_12_30.shtml#1167205858
There's lots of very good jazz up on [1]YouTube these days, although
it's actually pretty hard to find a strong musical performance that is
complete, acoustically clean, visually compelling, and yet not already
widely known.
I recently across one gem that is worth flagging: the Horace Silver
Quintet playing Silver's composition Senor Blues at a concert in
Holland in 1959. Horace Silver is unusual for the consistently high
quality of the groups he has led in his long career; I think I have
all of his albums recorded from around '55 to the early '70s, and it's
hard to think of a misfire on any of them. Still, the video captures
Silver during a particularly fruitful period with his quintet that
included Junior Cook on tenor and Blue Mitchell on trumpet. Louis
Hayes, who is [2]still playing regularly, is on drums. It's a terrific
performance and an excellent example of Silver's style. (The band is
playing with their backs to the audience, which must have been a bit
weird live but works well for the TV cameras.) I particularly enjoyed
Junior Cook's solo, although it's much too short:
[EMBED]
One of the reasons I chose to blog about this clip in particular is
that it's very accessible to folks who know nothing about jazz. If you
have a vague sense that you might like jazz but don't quite know where
to start, give this clip a listen. If you like it and want to hear
some more, start by buying [3]Song for My Father, recorded a few years
later with the great Joe Henderson on tenor. It's a classic. Picking
the next one to buy after that is a little arbitrary, but you can't go
wrong with [4]The Tokyo Blues from 1962. And if you like the song
Senor Blues in particular, you'll want to get [5]Six Pieces of Silver,
the 1956 album on which it first appeared.
Thanks to [6]Bob Erwig for posting the clip, and to [7]Blue Note for
putting lots of Silver's work back in circulation in the last few
years. Finally, if you liked this clip and want to see another from
the same group, check out [8]this performance of Cool Eyes.
References
1. http://youtube.com/
2.
http://www.kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=MHJCI
3. http://www.amazon.com/Song-My-Father-Horace-Silver/dp/B00000IL27
4. http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Blues-Horace-Silver/dp/B000005H75
5. http://www.amazon.com/Six-Pieces-Silver-Horace-Quintet/dp/B00004X0QO
6. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=boberwig
7. http://bluenote.com/
8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uf6OJb3UKI&mode=related&search=
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