Horace SilverLet’s Get to the Nitty Gritty: The Autobiography of Horace Silver

Horace Silver is one of the few surviving masters from the golden years of jazz. He tells us about growing up in Connecticut, coming to NYC in the early 1950's when it seemed that there were jazz clubs everywhere. He provides the reader with valuable insights into his piano playing and composing talent. His first big time experience was with Stan Getz. Then with Coleman Hawkins, Lou Donaldson and on to Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers. He played with Lester Young and Miles Davis. Then he started with his famous quintets which featured Kenny Dorham,Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins and later on Donald Byrd,Art Farmer,Clifford Jordan,Louis Smith,Junior Cook,Blue Mitchell, Carmell Jones and Joe Henderson. I very much enjoyed his perspective on the illustrious past and the many stories related in this book. Well worthwhile read for any jazz enthusiast. An excellent discography is included.

The pioneering ‘Hard Bop” pianist/composer Horace Silver is indisputably one of the greats, but he may have hurt his chances for greater immortality by bravely attempting to try new styles after 1970 and by eschewing the drugs-booze-tobacco self-destructions of his more famous peers. Silver was a sunny, spiritual, grateful soul who left a ton of great music and performances. This humble, anecdotal autobiography is worthwhile, though he deserves a full scale biography.

If you're a died in the wool jazz fan like I am, you'll linger over every word that Horace wrote, even though it's terribly mundane. The descriptions of working with Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Miles, Art Blakey are priceless. Less so is the extra information about how his doctor gave him a shot of penicillin which caused an allergic reaction but the doctor was smart and had the antidote at hand and so saved Horace's life.This could have been written by a high school student, but if it was, the teacher would have critiqued it and insisted that the writer make it a little more readable with descriptions, personal insights, etc which are missing here. Did I say that Horace's verses are insipid? almost "roses are red".What really ruined it for me was the large afterword by the ghost writer Phil Pastras. he starts off by relishing the wonderful playing by Woody Shaw on "Song for my Father"!!!!!!!!!(Carmel Jones was the trumpet player on that track). If they can't even get that right....

Horace Silver's book reads like a Horace Silver piano solo sounds. This is a down to earth statement about the life and times of a "Jazz Messenger" and survivor of one of the most creative and undocumented eras of Black Music. Horace gives us first hand accounts of what it was like to perform with Sonny Stitt, Art Blakey, Stan Getz, Clifford Brown, Miles Davis, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Big Nick, Lockjaw Davis, Kenny Clarke and many others. His anecdotes, like his quoting of different tunes during his piano solos, are often humorous and relevant to his central theme, the joys and hardships of life and music. I loved the book from beginning to end. I recommend it along with "RACE MUSIC", by GUthrie P. Ramsey, JR, and "Miles the Autobiography" by Quincy Troupe to all who are interested in the history of African American music and history in the post WWII era.

This is a good book for fans of Horace Silver as he tells many stories of his life and his dealings and meetings with many musicians as well as the friends he had. The only fault for me of this book was it wasn't always in chronological order, he would just speak off the top of his head, whatever came to his mind at times. Now don't get me wrong, because he did tell how he got started from his youth to his later years. I did like the book nevertheless.

The LAST thing this book does is get to the nitty-gritty. Primarily a string of recollections and anecdotes, this light-as-a-feather book hardly constitutes a proper biography for such an important (and still breathing) figure in the pantheon of jazz.Pastras' research seems to have consisted of going over to Horace's house every Sunday for bull sessions. And that's how the book reads. There are the expected misspellings and typos (Wilt Chamberlin, Carl Burnette, et al) and multiple repetitions of events.The ARE some interesting tidbits buried here as Horace can be quite the raconteur. His story about Dizzy Gillespie's visit to his apartment is touching and his story about being unable to sit in for Otis Spann because he couldn't play the blues in Muddy's key signature was both amusing and alarming. Horace not able to play the blues??? His multiple brushes with racism, drug enforcement and police power are chilling.But mostly the book is a name-dropper's paradise, recounting all of the famous and semi-famous celebrities our boy has met over the past 50 years. He sure has a steel-trap memory! But why he would exhibit such excitement about a chance sighting of a has-been former actress walking her dog in Central Park and then need to recount it in his autobiography 40 years later is beyond me.The curious reader will search in vain for clues to his musical talent (other than tea kettle whistles and the like). Very few of his compositions are even mentioned much less subjected to some sort of analysis. Other than Tyrone Washington, for whom he saves some choice invective, very few of his colleagues are discussed in detail, including incredibly Art Blakey. This relationship should have occupied a full chapter. What about Joe Henderson? Woody Shaw? Bob Berg?The reader is left with a picture of a lonely and fearful man, evidently estranged from his family. (He sees his only son "once or twice a year"!!!) He's uneducated but yearns for deeper understanding. A fine jazz craftsman, Silver contends with eruptions of artism that apparently mystify and ultimately confound him.

Horace in his own words. While there are a plethora of misspellings( mostly names), this story told by Horace himself is invaluable jazz reading.

Arrived in perfect condition.

Horace Silver est une légende et en écrivant son autobiographie il rends un service aux amateurs de sa musique comme peu de légendes le font. Cependant, son écriture scolaire (je suis allé là, j'ai fait ceci, j'ai rencontrée un tel,...) et le peu d'analyse de sa propre musique et de ses musiciens laisse ce livre au rang de curiosité avec quelques anecdotes amusantes.

Voilà pour une fois une autobiographie qui ne prend pas la tête ! La sincérité, l'engagement et l'humour d'Horace Silver sont les garants parfaits d'une lecture rapide, agréable et très intéressante (évidemment pour ceux qui maîtrisent anglais). On y apprend plein de choses sur la vie intense des musiciens de jazz dans le contexte social des années 50 et 60 aux USA. Avec une fraîcheur testimoniale constamment renouvelée, Horace nous invite à partager des moments-clés de sa vie magnifique, dédiée à la musique.

50年代のハードバップ期の最も重要なピアニスト／コンポーザーである、ホレス．シルヴァーの自伝です。多分聞き書きを起こしたものではないかと思われます。英文で読んでも非常に平易なのでそう感じています。この本には彼の幼少期から現在までが訥々と書かれています。まだ読了していませんが、スリリングなエピソードとか、ダイナミックで手に汗握るような話は出て来ません。ミュージシャンの日常として極めて平凡な話だと思います。が、出てくる人達がもう凄い人ばかりで、当時の状況が手に取るように分かるのが読んでいてとても楽しいです。ミュージシャンの人生としては平凡ですが、才能が非凡なので、取り巻く人も含めてストーリーそのものが非凡なものになっているという感じです。ネタバレさせると悪いから伏せますが、なるほどそうだったのか、というとリビアの嵐でもあります。まだ読み終えてないのですが、個人的にはこの人の作曲は素晴らしいので、そのあたりのヒミツに少しでも触れられたら、と思いますが、書いてあるかなぁ？書いてないような気がする。ともあれ、ビバップ創成期を知るジャズ．ジャイアンツの問わず語りなので、往事の雰囲気が十分感じられ、ジャズ好きな方には非常に楽しめると思います。アメリカのアマゾンのレビューでは人の名前に間違いが多い、なんて指摘もありますが、それはわからないし正直どうでもいいです。