If you haven’t heard yet, the legendary jazz pianist Horace Silver passed away last night of natural causes at the age of 86. His achievements include pioneering a soulful, bluesy and funky style of jazz that would become known as Hard Bop, starting the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey and mentoring many young players who would go on to become jazz legends in their own right (Hank Mobley, Blue Mitchell, Lee Morgan). Beyond all that, his greatest legacy will be his classic compositions (almost all of which were recorded for Blue Note records), so many of which went on to become jazz standards that are still played all over the world today (check out three of them below). To say Silver was a giant of jazz’s classic period of the 1950′s and 60′s would be a massive understatement. He will be missed.
