Horace Silver
Piano Solo on
The Kicker

About

Horace Silver's six-chorus piano solo is the third of four solos on this hard-driving Henderson blues. At 266 BPM over the 12-bar form in B-flat, Silver brings his trademark combination of blues grit and rhythmic punch, his percussive touch and funky phrasing anchoring the performance in the earthy, soulful tradition that defined his approach to the blues. Six choruses give Silver the room to build the kind of bluesy, gospel-tinged narrative arc that made his piano style one of the most distinctive and influential in jazz.

Horace Silver was 35 to 36 years old at the time.