When I was in college and first getting interested in jazz, the cover of Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers was for me the epitome of cool: the shirt sleeves, the angular composition, the bold color, the shadows, and the hands—by god, the hands. But what was cooler was the music therein. The hard-bop pianist has died—he was 85—but rather than let that get us down, let’s instead celebrate his musical legacy by listening to a few of his best cuts. After all—if you don’t know Horace Silver, you don’t know jazz.
UPDATE: Horace Silver is not dead. This affords us the rare opportunity to appreciate someone while they’re still alive!