The Greatest Show On Earth…

[Hardbopjazz]

I saw Horace Silver and his band this weekend at the Blue Note (Fri, and Sun shows). Man let me tell you, Horace still has it. The show was just under 2 hours. It was two plus hours if you include the speech at the end of the shows from Horace. Last night at the 10:30 show, they did a 35-minute rendition of “Song For My Father”. Horace soloed for a good 20-minutes of that 35-minutes. I was able to sit in the same seat for both nights, right up by Horace and the piano. When he solos, his right hand, for the most part, uses just his pointer and middle finger. I picked up on that. Horace is always thinking ahead.

One of the funnies events, the band came out and took the stage and was ready to play. The clubs all of a sudden starts playing Kool and the Gang’s “Lady’s Night. They had to wait to they shut the music from the PA system. While they waited, the band was joking with Horace. One of the guys said, “How about this one”, referring to “Lady’s Night”. Horace tilted his head up to listen more directly and then said, “you’re on.” I had no idea what he meant about this. But half way through the show when Horace was soloing he started quoting “Lady’s Night in one of his solos. It fit perfectly. All the guys started to laugh.

What a sweet man. He stopped after the sets and posed for photos, signed autographs.

[Dan Gould]

Sounds like a great show, and its terrific to hear that Horace is feeling well enough to be touring and putting on a good long show. How did Eric Alexander sound with the Horace songbook?

[Hardbopjazz]

Eric was great. I know I read here before that people didn't like his playing. He was smoking. The whole band was smoking.

Horace did address the question why hasn't he been playing live or recording in the past years. He said his career has been very good to him, and he doesn't need to tour or record. Over the past few years, he said he has written a lot. If I heard him correctly, he's written enough music for 10 years worth of albums. He said he got the bug and he had to get out on the road again. Kind of like a cigarette smoker that quit for a bit, the urge comes back and you lite up. I guess once a musician always a musician.

Edited May 3, 2004 by Hardbopjazz

[take5]

Aw, damnit, I posted my review of the Saturday night show in another thread. Oh well.

But yeah, cool show!

[Soulstation1]

horace "dee-jayed" for a few hours sunday on the jazz station at sirius.com.

i believe this was hoarce's first time playing live in nyc in 4 years