ROTH FAMILY FOUNDATION Music in America Imprint Michael P. Roth and Sukey Garcetti have endowed this imprint to honor the memory of their parents, Julia and Harry Roth, whose deep love of music they wish to share with others. The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by the Music in America Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which is supported by a major gift from Sukey and Gil Garcetti, Michael Roth, and the Roth Family Foundation. LET’S GET TO THE NITTY GRITTY LET’S GET TO THE NITTY GRITTY THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HORACE SILVER HORACE SILVER Edited, with Afterword, by Phil Pastras Foreword by Joe Zawinul University of California Press Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2006 by The Regents of the University of California Excerpts from “How Calmly Does the Orange Branch,” by Tennessee Williams, from The Collected Poems of Tennessee Williams, copyright © 1925, 1926, 1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1942, 1944, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1971, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1991, 1995, 2002 by The University of the South. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Unless otherwise noted, photographs are from the collection of the author. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Silver, Horace, 1928–. Let’s get to the nitty gritty : the autobiography of Horace Silver / Horace Silver ; edited, with afterword, by Phil Pastras ; foreword by Joe Zawinul. p. cm. Includes discography (p. ), bibliographical references (p. ), and index. isbn 0-520-24374-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Silver, Horace, 1928–. 2. Jazz musicians—United States—Biography. 3. Pianists—United States— Biography. I. Pastras, Philip. II. Title. ml417.s64a3 2006 781.65'092—dc22 2005021232 [B] Manufactured in the United States of America 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 10987654321 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). I dedicate this book to my mother, Gertrude Edmonds Silver; my dad, John Tavares Silver; and my son, Gregory Paul Silver I Speak Music I speak music, the international language. I speak and people everywhere understand me. I speak and people listen. I speak and people dance. I speak and people sing. I speak and people pat their feet and clap their hands. Occasionally I speak and people cry, but more often when I speak I bring joy, happiness, and uplift. I speak music, the universal language. I speak and the universe speaks to me. I speak and the universe speaks through me. I speak music, the personal language of my soul. I seek music that will change the blues within my soul to a rhapsody. I speak the music of my thought. I speak the music of my word. I speak the music of my deed. I speak the music of my soul, which is continually being composed and de-composed, arranged and re-arranged so that its melody, harmony, and rhythm may be in accord with all people and the universe. Horace Silver CONTENTS photographs follow page 120 foreword Joe Zawinul xi preface xiii acknowledgments xv chapter one Childhood 1 chapter two Dreaming My Dreams: Teenage Years 18 chapter three Lady Music and the Messengers: Early Adult Years 34 chapter four The Quintet 90 chapter five Westward Bound: Middle Years 121 chapter six Oª the Merry-Go-Round: Later Years 151 epilogue 177 afterword Phil Pastras 183 discography Eric B. Olsen 197 recordings honoring horace silver 243 a select bibliography of music publications 245 awards 247 index 249 FOREWORD JOE ZAWINUL throughout the history of music, there have been thousands of master players, artists, and composers. Yet each generation has produced relatively few individuals with something so distinctive, personal, and rec- ognizable that when you hear the music not only do you know whose music it is but it also seems that you know that person. These are the ones who will always be remembered. In this very privileged group belongs the hero of this book . horace silver. Enjoy his story! xi PREFACE in writing this autobiography, I tried to divide my life story into roughly chronological segments. I say “roughly” because, although I have a keen recollection for past events, my memory for dates is extremely bad. I do not believe that the dates are so important. But the stories are. I have tried to bare my soul in this book. I reveal things about myself that I’ve never revealed to anyone before, not even to my family members and close friends. I hope that it will give you, the reader, a keen insight into what I’m all about. Maybe it will help you to understand my dedication to this glorious music we call jazz. This autobiography should provide some his- torical documentation, but I also hope that it will be enjoyable and inter- esting reading. I’m trying my best to tell it like it is and like it was. In any event, it is as accurate a picture of my life as I can remember. Sometimes when I was on tour and in my hotel room, I passed the time by writing poetry or just writing down some of my thoughts on cer- tain topics. I kept these writings in a logbook and would like to share some of them with you. I’ve been so involved in writing lyrics for my mu- sic in recent years that I haven’t written much poetry, but I would like to get back into it. I don’t see much diªerence between a lyric writer and a poet. To me, they are opposite sides of the same coin: one creates poetry set to music, and the other creates poetry without music. I have included some of these writings as epigraphs to the chapters in this volume. xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS as i wrote this book, I reflected on five of the great friendships I’ve had in my life. Four of these individuals have made their transition and one remains. I’ve had many friends throughout my life, but these are the ones I remember and treasure the most, the ones who have been like brothers and sisters to me. Bob Marshall and I met and became close friends when we were in high school. Bob was well read and well versed in worldly aªairs. He also had a great vocabulary and was a good speller and knew the defini- tion of many words, skills that I am rather weak in. Whenever I wrote a new tune and was pleased with it and wanted to share it with some- one, I would often call him and play it for him over the phone. When I was writing my lyrics and didn’t know the definition of a word and couldn’t find it in the dictionary because I wasn’t spelling it right, I would call him, and he would always come to my rescue. Bob has recently passed on. I miss him dearly. I met Don Williams through trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and we became great friends. He loved my music and loved me. He was always concerned about my welfare. Since I live alone, he would call me at least twice a week to check on me and see if I was faring well. If I wasn’t, he would al- ways be there to assist me in whatever way he could. I am the godfather xv xvi / Acknowledgments of his youngest daughter, Kimberly. For this I am very grateful. She is a joy to my heart. I miss Don dearly. I met violinist and composer William Henderson through George Butler, who used to be an executive producer for Blue Note Records and then later for Columbia Records. Bill was the conductor of the Los An- geles Modern String Orchestra, which consisted of a group of string players who were composers and who wanted to get their compositions performed. I was commissioned by the ASCAP Foundation and Meet the Composer Inc. to compose a musical work in honor of the great Duke Ellington. I wrote a three-part suite for string orchestra called “Message from the Maestro,” which was performed and recorded with the Los An- geles Modern String Orchestra. William Henderson conducted. (Trom- bonist and arranger/orchestrator Tom McIntosh, arranger/orchestrator Frank Kavelin, and Bill guided me in writing this suite, since I had never written for strings before.) Bill had a great classical background. When- ever I wanted some information about classical music or any of its com- posers, I could always rely on him to supply that information. He also knew a lot about Broadway composers and their compositions and shared that knowledge with me. Bill was a true friend, always there for me when I needed him. I miss him dearly. I met Hank Perry when I was in my late twenties and had just started the Horace Silver Quintet. He used to hang out in all the jazz clubs where we performed, and he introduced himself to me. We discovered that we both had Cape Verdean ancestry. He was a lover of jazz and a fan of my music.