Horace Silver
Blowin' the Blues Away

This is truly a proper record. This is truly great jazz, modern (1959 but how fresh it sounds!), advanced yet seemingly simple. Yes, because Horace Silver's style is only seemingly simple but conceals avant-garde harmonic concepts. Take "Peace" as an example, a ballad unusually made up of 10 bars, in which the quintet interprets a progression full of substitutions and dissonances in a stunning manner, transfiguring the notes into pure emotion, from the theme that is a program in itself to the incredible pictures painted by Blue Mitchell's trumpet. Images so wonderful that they overshadow the somewhat naïve sketches of the leader, always inventive and brilliant even if this time a little in the shadow (but only when compared to that boundless ocean of colors, images, and inspiration that is Mitchell).

Not that Blowin' The Blues Away can be described by mentioning only "Peace"! Not only on ballads does the jazzman live. The record opens with the title-track which, strong of a theme played in unison by the brass (reminiscent of jazz for orchestra), easily manages to blow away the blues, that indescribable state of mind mixed with sadness and self-encouragement typical of African Americans.   Scorching Horace who traces here the paradigm of bluesy eloquence, scorching the brass with yet another great Blue Mitchell and an even greater Junior Cook who, starting from the last notes of the theme, bursts into a barrage of exuberance that takes your breath away. Two underrated musicians, complementary to each other, as demonstrated by the short back and forth before the final theme: trumpet and tenor jostling for a bit of space with the rhythm section reconciling and accommodating.

Not that Blowin' The Blues Away can be described by citing only "Blowin' The Blues Away"! But it would be too cumbersome to describe each track, there would be a lot and nothing to say, as always when talking about jazz, as always when talking about music (after all, better to dance about architecture, right?).

But it would nonetheless be unfair not to mention the solo brilliance of Silver manifested in the two trio performances, "The St. Vitus Dance" and "Melancholy Mood." Or to ignore the energy released by "Break City" and the more famous "Sister Sadie", or not talk about the oriental flavor that pervades "The Baghdad Blues", characterized by ingenious arrangement ideas (the piano in the lower octaves during the theme presentation) and emblematic of Horace's well-known openness to other cultures (it will suffice to mention titles like "The Cape Verdean Blues", "The Tokyo Blues", "Calcutta Cutie").

We are faced with a masterpiece, considered among the best records by Horace Silver. Accompanied by the classic quintet formation (Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, and Louis Hayes) the Leader expresses here his incredible talent, showcasing many of the peculiarities of his way of conceiving music.   Did I previously write "accompanied"? Mistake, because the other musicians are not just "the other musicians", they are an integral and fundamental part of a discourse that indeed starts from Silver but is then characterized and completed by the whole quintet together.

What are you waiting for?