Horace Silver – Blowin’ the Blues Away – 180 Gram Vinyl Record

Description

Horace Silver – Blowin’ the Blues Away – 180 Gram Vinyl Record

Blowin’ the Blues Away captures the Horace Silver Quintet at the height of its late-1950s power. Silver’s piano is joined by Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Junior Cook on tenor saxophone, Gene Taylor on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums. Recorded across three 1959 sessions, the album turns blues, gospel, Latin rhythm, ballad writing, and hard bop into a language that is immediately accessible but unmistakably personal.

The title track opens with a brisk theme and the clipped, percussive piano attack that made Silver’s compositions so recognizable. “The St. Vitus Dance” is a short solo-piano interlude full of rhythmic character. “Break City” returns the quintet to a tougher groove, with Mitchell’s clean trumpet and Cook’s earthier tenor creating an ideal front line. Silver’s comping continually nudges the soloists forward.

“Peace” changes the emotional scale. Its spacious melody became one of Silver’s most enduring ballads, and the quintet plays it without excessive decoration. “Sister Sadie” follows with a gospel-inflected theme and a backbeat that helped define soul jazz. The tune’s apparent simplicity is part of its strength: each repeated phrase gathers force through the band’s timing and the horns’ unified attack.

“The Baghdad Blues” adds an exotic minor-key color without losing the blues foundation. “Melancholy Mood,” another brief piano feature, closes the original album in a reflective frame. The two solo pieces are important to the pacing, allowing Silver’s touch and harmonic economy to stand alone between the quintet performances.

This 180-gram Blue Note vinyl edition presents the original seven-track album and omits the bonus track found on some later digital versions. UPC 602455236586 identifies this pressing. It preserves the classic single-LP program in which Silver’s strongest compositions are balanced by two concise piano interludes and the remarkably cohesive sound of his working quintet.

Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic

Record Details

Artist: Horace Silver
Title: Blowin’ the Blues Away
Format: 180 Gram Vinyl Record
Label: Blue Note Records
Release year: 1959
UPC: 602455236586

Track Listing

A1. Blowin’ the Blues Away
A2. The St. Vitus Dance
A3. Break City
B1. Peace
B2. Sister Sadie
B3. The Baghdad Blues
B4. Melancholy Mood