The story behind puzzle No. 6
Horace Silver · Song for My Father · Blue Note · 1964
That bass line might sound familiar even if you have never heard Horace Silver. The opening notes of Song for My Father were borrowed a decade later for a Steely Dan hit, but the original is the one that swings.
Horace Silver recorded Song for My Father for Blue Note on October 26, 1964, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The album came out in January 1965 with a photo of Silver's father on the cover. It became the most commercially successful album of Silver's career.
Silver's father, John Tavares Silver, was born on the island of Maio in Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, and taught his son Cape Verdean folk music. A three-week trip to Brazil in early 1964 deepened Silver's interest in that heritage. The tune mixes that feeling with a bossa nova rhythm and a hard bop band.
The bass and piano set up a rolling vamp that never loses its sway. Then wait for Joe Henderson's tenor solo. It is often called one of the great motif-based solos in jazz, because nearly everything in it grows out of his first three notes. Steely Dan fans will recognize the opening bass notes. The band borrowed them for Rikki Don't Lose That Number in 1974.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Play Joe Henderson's Page One next, his own debut album from the year before. It includes Blue Bossa, another Liner Note puzzle.
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