Horace Silver

Horace Silver gave hard bop its earthy soul. Where bebop could be cerebral and fast, Silver wrote tunes that were funky, catchy, and rooted in gospel and the blues – music with a backbeat you could feel, melodies you could hum, and a groove that pulled you in. He more than anyone made modern jazz feel good in the body, not just the head.

He co-founded the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey before launching his own long-running quintet, and as a bandleader he had the same knack for talent and the same commitment to strong, memorable writing. His compositions – “Song for My Father,” “The Preacher,” “Señor Blues” – became standards precisely because they were so singable and so deeply grooved.

His piano style matched the writing: percussive, bluesy, rhythmically insistent, full of repeated figures that locked into the bass and drums. He wasn’t trying to play the most notes. He was trying to make you move, and he did.

Silver spent almost his entire career on Blue Note, and his sound – soulful, structured, irresistibly funky – helped define what that famous label meant. The soul-jazz and funk that followed owe him an enormous debt, much of it unpaid and unacknowledged. The grooves are everywhere now. He got there first.