Horace Silver is criminally underrepresented in my collection. Same goes for Art Blakey. Aiming to remedy that. I’ve never really focused on those two cats’ records as leaders through the years. For one reason or another.
I figured this album is a wonderful way to start building the Silver collection a bit, as it’s one of his best efforts. Two fantastic bands are backing him. One with Joe Henderson on tenor, Carmell Jones on trumpet, Teddy Smith on bass, Roger Humphries on drums, and the other one with Junior Cook on tenor, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Gene Taylor on bass and Roy Brooks on drums.
Henderson is always great. I really dig Jones’ trumpet playing and the great sounding drums of Humphries as well. Silver plays some lovely stuff. Especially on ”Calcutta Cutie”, a favorite on which his playing flows effortlessly from one mood to another in a beautiful way. As for the other tunes, there’s the bossa nova tinged title track, we have ”Que Pasa” with it’s wonderful latin rhythm, the smokers ”The Natives Are Restless Tonight” and Henderson’s ”The Kicker” and also the contemplative ballad ”Lonely Woman”.
The cover photo is of Silver’s father John Tavares Silver, who was born on one of the Cape Verde islands. The title tune is dedicated to him.