Horace Silver
Piano Solo on
No Smokin'

About

Horace Silver takes the first solo with two choruses of his signature funky, blues-drenched piano improvisation on "No Smokin'," the opening track of The Stylings of Silver. At a blazing tempo near 298 BPM, the 40-bar AABA form in B-flat minor demands both technical facility and rhythmic conviction, and Silver delivers with his characteristically percussive attack, his left hand comping with insistence while his right hand launches angular melodic lines studded with gospel-tinged inflections. As the first of four soloists ahead of Hank Mobley, Art Farmer, and Louis Hayes, his two-chorus statement establishes the hard-charging energy that defines this performance and the album as a whole.

Horace Silver was 28 to 29 years old at the time.