A decade into his recording career", pianist Horace Silver made the album that would endure as the crown jewel of a catalog that boasts numerous hard bop classics. Song for My Father captured the transition of his quintet with two tracks taken from an October 1963 session with Blue Mitchell", Junior Cook", Gene Taylor", and Roy Brooks. A year later Silver entered Van Gelder Studio again with a new band featuring Carmell Jones", Joe Henderson", Teddy Smith", and Roger Humphries for a session that yielded four more cuts including what would become his signature tune", "Song for My Father"," a dedication to his father that was inspired by both his Cape Verdean heritage and the music Silver had heard on a recent trip to Brazil. Blue Note Essential Series is mastered from hi-resolution digital masters on 140g vinyl.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. "We'd like for you all to help us get in the groove, let your hair down, and come on and get in the music with us," says Horace Silver in the spoken introduction to Doin' The Thing, the only live album the great pianist made during his remarkable three-decade tenure on Blue Note Records. Recorded in May 1961 at the Village Gate in NYC, this exuberant live date featured Silver's great quintet with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, tenor saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor, and drummer Roy Brooks.

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Song For My Father is pianist Horace Silver's crowning jewel in a catalog filled with hard bop classics. Captures 2 tracks from a session w/ previous quintet (Blue Mitchell/Junior Cook/Gene Taylor/Roy Brooks) and 4 more cuts yielded from a session w/ new band (Carmell Jones/ Joe Henderson/Teddy Smith/Roger Humphries). His signature tune is a dedication to his father inspired partly by his Cape Verdean heritage. The Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series is 180g all-analog, mastered from original tapes.

The Horace Silver Quintet of 1959 was a hard bop juggernaut featuring the pianist with trumpeter Blue Mitchell, saxophonist Junior Cook, bassist Gene Taylor and drummer Louis Hayes. Timeless originals like "Sister Sadie," "Peace," and the blustery title track make Blowin' The Blues Away one of the finest entries in Silver's formidable discography. Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series features stereo, all-analog mastering by Kevin Gray from the original tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal. Musicians: Blue Mitchell-trumpet / Junior Cook-saxophone / Horace Silver-piano / Gene Taylor-bass / Louis Hayes-drums

Born September 2, 1928, Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silva - later to be known as Horace Silver - was among the most accomplished American jazz pianists and composers of all time; coming out of the hard bop school of jazz, Silver was known for his distinctive playing style and pioneering compositional contributions to the form. Influenced by a wide range of musical styles, notably gospel, African music, and Latin American, Silver also later ventured into the soul-jazz genre. This 4CD collection features Horace Silver's eight finest Blue Note albums, made between 1952 and 1963, the first, and many would say most productive and challenging, decade of this masterful composer, performer and musician's career. Despite living a long and hugely influential life, Horace Silver sadly passed away on June 18th 2014, albeit at the age of 85 and of natural causes, having generally enjoyed good health until his final hour. This compilation serves as both an ideal starting point for those new to Horace Silver's music, and as a perfect reminder for those already familiar.

Vinyl LP pressing. Recorded in May 1963, Silver's Serenade was the last in a fantastic run of albums that pianist Horace Silver would make with the most celebrated line-up of his Quintet featuring Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor saxophone, Gene Taylor on bass, and Roy Brooks on drums. The core of the band had been together since 1959 and recorded hard bop classics like Finger Poppin' and Blowin' the Blues Away, with Brooks joining in 1960 on Horace-Scope. The program on Silver's Serenade consists of five Silver tunes that epitomize his exceptional compositional style: captivating melodies, sophisticated harmonies, and intricate rhythmic inventions with a soulful and unerring sense of swing at the core. From the relaxed groove of the opening title track to the hard-charging finale "Nineteen Bars" the Quintet delivers their swan song with style.

Ebullient piano legend Horace Silver is the innovator of the hard bop style that virtually defines today's "straight-ahead" jazz sound. Along with Art Blakey (with whom he founded the seminal group the Jazz Messengers), Silver brought a fresh infusion of funk, gospel, R&B and roots music back to jazz (which had become more abstract during the bebop era). Jazz Has a Sense of Humor consists of 9 new, jaunty Silver originals that aptly make his point that jazz can be both witty and playful.

Silver is known for his distinctive playing style and pioneering compositional contributions to hard bop. He was influenced by a wide range of musical styles, notably gospel music, African music, and Latin American music, and sometimes ventured into the soul jazz genre.

Jazz pianist Horace Silver brings his blues-inflected style and talents as a composer to this 1968 album featuring the likes of Charles Tolliver, Stanley Turrentine, Bennie Maupin and more. Unusually cheery and bright, this album is truly a serenade!

The Tokyo Blues Blue Note Tone Poet Edition Horace Silver's 1962 tour of Japan had a deep impact on the pianist who dedicated his album The Tokyo Blues to his Japanese fans. With his quintet of Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor & John Harris Jr., Silver combined a "Japanese feeling in the melodies with the Latin feeling in the rhythms." This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Horace Silver - "Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse". In August 1965, great jazz pianist and composer Horace Silver brought a cutting-edge line-up to the Penthouse in Seattle with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, Teddy Smith on bass, and Roger Humphries on drums. A newly discovered recording of those performances gets it's first-ever release with Silver In Seattle: Live at the Penthouse featuring the band playing uninhibited renditions of Silver classics including "Song For My Father," "Cape Verdean Blues," and "The Kicker."

Horace Silver - "Silver in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse". In August 1965, great jazz pianist and composer Horace Silver brought a cutting-edge line-up to the Penthouse in Seattle with Woody Shaw on trumpet, Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, Teddy Smith on bass, and Roger Humphries on drums. A newly discovered recording of those performances gets it's first-ever release with Silver In Seattle: Live at the Penthouse featuring the band playing uninhibited renditions of Silver classics including "Song For My Father," "Cape Verdean Blues," and "The Kicker." Available on 180g vinyl.

Composer Michael William Balfe composed 29 operas, and around 250 other pieces. He is best known for his opera The Bohemian Girl. Balfe’s opera Satanella was his 23rd opera, and was premiered at Covent Garden in 1858. The work is a hybrid of classical opera tradition and stand-alone songs. This release is performed by the John Powell Singers and the Victorian Opera Orchestra under the direction of Richard Bonynge.

Review:

Bonynge is unsurpassed in this repertoire; he keeps it zipping buoyantly along, effortlessly supporting his singers and clearly relishing every baleful horn call, rippling harp and languishing cello solo. His cast, too, feels near-ideal. The young Chinese-born tenor Kang Wang is a Rupert of considerable dash, and Sally Silver sings the title-role…with sweetness and sparkle.

– Gramophone

SOMM Recordings is honored to release one of the last recordings made by the much-loved and admired soprano Sally Silver before her death at the age of 51 in 2018. Silver’s third release on SOMM, La vie d’une rose returns to the evocatively perfumed songs of Jules Massenet following 2015’s well-received Les amoureuses sont des folles. Accompanied again by the renowned conductor- pianist Richard Bonynge – who also provides a moving, specially written tribute – she is joined by the mezzo-soprano Christine Tocci on six duets. The 25 (of Massenet’s 285) mélodies heard here offer a marked contrast to the familiar image of the composer’s famed operatic credentials. As Massenet expert Hervé Oléon says in his authoritative booklet notes: “Massenet, the song composer, was, in his own words, rather more at home in salons – this ‘bourgeois artist at the fireside’ as he liked to describe himself”. Embracing a multitude of emotions, sacred and profane, these songs employ wide-ranging forms and a broad musical palette to always captivating ends while also revealing a composer perpetually developing, keen to experiment and looking towards the future. La vie d’une rose is produced by the late soprano’s husband Jeremy Silver (Director of the Opera School at the University of Cape Town) who also provides the translation of Hervé Oléon’s booklet notes. Of Sally Silver’s previous releases with SOMM, her first volume of Massenet songs, Les amoureuses sont des folles (SOMMCD 0151), received the coveted Orphée d’or from L’Académie du disque lyrique and was a Recording of the Month for MusicWeb International, who described it as “A pure delight... [Silver and Bonynge] bring inspired, sympathetic, thoughtfully nuanced readings to these songs”. Songs by William Vincent Wallace (SOMMCD 0131) was hailed by Classical Ear as “A release full of delightful discoveries distinguished by persuasive performances of idiomatic charm”.

This is the second disc of songs with Sally Silver and Richard Bonynge appearing on SOMM. The collection of songs on this CD ranges across the whole of Massenet's career as a composer. This selection also includes duets and other settings for solo voice groupings, of which Massenet composed many.

"What an adventurous move it is for a record company to provide listeners with the opportunity to hear songs that have not been committed to disc time and time again." - IRR

William Vincent Wallace may not be a household name to today’s music-lovers but from 1845 until the end of the 19th century he was very popular as an operatic composer. He is not completely forgotten, however, and I knew at least an excerpt from his first opera, Maritana, from a Joan Sutherland record. On Marco Polo there is also a complete recording of the opera. Excerpts from Maritana coupled with music from a couple of other roughly contemporaneous British operas are available on EMI and on the Australian label Melba Deborah Riedel sings several Wallace arias plus others by Balfe, Faraday and Sullivan. Ms Riedel was scheduled to sing the role of Ghiva on the present recording of Lurline but died before the project could be carried through. The recording is dedicated to her memory.

The libretto is based on the legend of Lorelei, the 132 metre high rock on the eastern bank of the Rhine. In Heine’s poem Die Lore-Ley a kind of siren sings from the outcrop and distracts shipmen so that they crash into the rock. In this opera she falls in love with a human being, a young nobleman. When the River King hears this he knows that this will lead to her death. How the story ends I won’t reveal, which is a sneaky way of forcing readers to buy these two discs to find out.

And it is worth the moderate costs, since the music is wholly agreeable and the singing and playing, despite some blemishes, on a quite high level. The performing edition is by Richard Bonynge, who has done great things in dusting off long-forgotten operas and giving them a new lease of life. One can at once in the long overture hear that Wallace was a skilled orchestrator. The opening is an atmospheric description of a moonlit night on the Rhine, but the music becomes both lively and dramatic. When the imaginary curtain rises we are exposed once more to a serene and beautiful orchestral introduction, which is also woven into the recitative that follows and sung at the end before the aria.

So what does the music sound like? The easiest way of describing it is to see it as a forerunner of Sullivan. In a blindfold test I am sure many listeners would believe some of the melodies to be from one of the Savoy operas. Ingratiating and easy to hum they could comfortably command a place in any programme of light opera and operetta. What is missing is perhaps the tongue-in-cheek quality of some of Sullivan’s best creations and the glint in the eye. On the other hand the story doesn’t exactly cry out for such qualities. There are also several rousing choruses that remind me of G&S and the act finales are skilfully structured to rise to slap-up climaxes. In particular it is in the second act that Wallace’s inspiration flows at its richest. Take the opening chorus (CD 1 tr. 19) or the Sullivanesque Chorus From his Palace of Crystal (CD 1 tr. 22). Rupert’s aria Sweet form (CD 1 tr. 23) is lovely and somewhat later Ghiva’s song Gentle Troubadour (CD 2 tr. 2 is catchy. Rhineberg’s The nectar cup may yield delight in ¾ time (CD 2 tr. 5) is another hit. No wonder it was such a success in the 1860s.

Act III also has several highlights. Rupert’s ballad (CD 2 tr. 13) again recalls G&S and Lurline’s Grand Scena (CD 2 tr. 18) should be a dream number for any high soprano. The prayer, in particular, is noble and beautiful. The final scene opens with a riveting chorus (CD 2 tr. 22) followed by a long duet between Rupert and Lurline. In the ensemble that concludes the opera Lurline returns to her opening solo in act I but now heavily embellished.

Sally Silver in the title role has a bright lyrical voice, sailing effortlessly up in the highest reaches of the soprano register. She negotiates the coloratura passages with supreme ease. Hers is a most sensitive reading of a role that is both other-worldly and deeply human. Veteran Keith Lewis, best known perhaps as a stylish Mozart singer, makes the most of Rupert’s role, nuanced and sensitive, but today his beautiful voice is afflicted by a disfiguring wobble on sustained notes. This is, however, compensated for by his ravishing pianissimo singing. The end of his air (CD 1 tr. 23) is excellent proof of his ability. David Soar is a powerful and intense Rhineberg but slightly strained at times. Donald Maxwell, another veteran, is a splendid Baron Truenfels and even better is Roderick Earle as the Gnome. Try CD 1 tr. 27 for proof. Fiona Janes is a vibrant and expressive Ghiva. The orchestral and choral forces are splendid under Richard Bonynge’s experienced leadership.

There is a synopsis in the booklet but the libretto - including the original stage directions shown in the 1860 libretto - can be bought separately.

Victorian Opera Northwest, which ‘was formed to promote the excellent music found in the operas and operettas of forgotten 19th Century British and Irish composers has certainly lived up to their aim. Together with Naxos they have enriched the operatic CD-catalogue. Maybe not a dramatic masterpiece but all lovers of 19th century opera, and lovers of good melodies should hasten to add this set to their collections.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International