Died On This Date (June 18, 2014) Horace Silver / Jazz Great
themusicsover Horace Silver
September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014
Horace Silver was an influential American jazz pianist who is largely responsible for creating what is now known as hard bop. Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Silver lived close enough to New York City to experience its jazz scene from an early age. After initially picking up the tenor sax, Silver moved over the piano. His big break came in 1950 when Stan Getz hired his band to back him at a Hartford gig. That led to a tour and Silver’s recording debut on one of Getz’s records. Getz later recorded three of Silver’s compositions. In 1951, Silver formed the Jazz Messengers, one of the most influential jazz collectives of all time. He also played and recorded with the likes of Miles Davis, Lou Donaldson, and Hank Mobley, to name a few. In 1956, he signed with Blue Note Records, his home until 1980. Over the course of his career, Silver released over 40 albums as a band leader and countless others as a sideman. Horace Silver was 85 when he died of natural causes on June 18, 2014.
What You Should Own
Chuck Niles was a popular and extremely knowledgeable jazz radio disc jockey who entertained and educated Los Angeles, California music fans for the better part of 50 years. Known by such nicknames as “Mr. Jazz,” Niles could be heard throughout much of Southern California on influential jazz and blues station KKJZ for the last fourteen years of his life. After moving to Los Angeles as a young man, Niles dabbled in acting, even landing a bit part in Breakfast At Tiffany’s. Throughout his long and fruitful years on the air in L.A., he worked at such stations as KHJ, KBCO (later KKGO), and eventually KLON which became KKJZ, one of the most famous jazz and blues stations in the United States. Over the years, Niles was memorialized in songs like Horace Silvers’ “The Hippest Cat In Hollywood,” 
Michael Brecker was a highly regarded and influential jazz saxophonist who many considered the greatest since 
Art Blakey was a drummer and band leader whose Jazz Messengers, a band he led for an astonishing thirty years, was the onetime home of such future legends as Horace Silver, Lou Donaldson, Donald Byrd, 