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Horace Silver - Blowin' The Blues Away (1959)
MP3 / 320kbps / LP Covers / RS.com: 102mb

Amazon.com essential recording:
Recorded in 1959, this is an early chronicle of one of the finest bands of the hard-bop genre, pianist Silver's classic quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Louis Hayes. The group already epitomized Silver's own virtues of precision and hard swing, with each soloist committed to direct and concise statements, at all times both emotionally and musically focused. There's effective contrast, too, between Mitchell's subtle turn of phrase and Cook's raw intensity, each filling in Silver's vision of a music that combined the complexity of bop and the immediacy of blues and gospel. This session contains the original recordings of two Silver standards, the serene "Peace" and the joyously funky "Sister Sadie," but the collective impact of the band is just as enduring. The group was so musically close-knit that when Silver disbanded five years later, the rest continued as the Blue Mitchell Quintet, with a young Chick Corea on piano.

AMG:
Blowin' the Blues Away is one of Horace Silver's all-time Blue Note classics, only upping the ante established on Finger Poppin' for tightly constructed, joyfully infectious hard bop. This album marks the peak of Silver's classic quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Louis Hayes; it's also one of the pianist's strongest sets of original compositions, eclipsed only by Song for My Father and Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. The pacing of the album is impeccable, offering up enough different feels and slight variations on Silver's signature style to captivate the listener throughout. Two songs -- the warm, luminous ballad "Peace" and the gospel-based call-and-response swinger "Sister Sadie" -- became oft-covered standards of Silver's repertoire, and the madly cooking title cut wasn't far behind. And they embody what's right with the album in a nutshell -- the up-tempo tunes ("Break City") are among the hardest-swinging Silver had ever cut, and the slower changes of pace ("Melancholy Mood") are superbly lyrical, adding up to one of the best realizations of Silver's aesthetic. Also, two cuts ("Melancholy Mood" and the easy-swinging "The St. Vitus Dance") give Silver a chance to show off his trio chops, and "Baghdad Blues" introduces his taste for exotic, foreign-tinged themes. Through it all, Silver remains continually conscious of the groove, playing off the basic rhythms to create funky new time patterns. The typical high-impact economy of his and the rest of the band's statements is at its uppermost level, and everyone swings with exuberant commitment. In short, Blowin' the Blues Away is one of Silver's finest albums, and it's virtually impossible to dislike.

Personnel:
Horace Silver (piano)
Junior Cook (tenor sax)
Blue Mitchell (trumpet)
Gene Taylor (bass)
Louis Hayes (drums)

Tracks:
1. Blowin' the Blues Away (4:45)
2. The St. Vitus Dance (4:09)
3. Break City (4:57)
4. Peace (6:02)
5. Sister Sadie (6:19)
6. The Baghdad Blues (4:52)
7. Melancholy Mood (7:10)
8. How Did It Happen (4:40)

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