Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
This is the fourth time in 50 years that I have bought this album not counting the countless times I have given it as a gift. It is the definative album of what 50's funk was. You just had to say "Horace Silver" and you defined a whole movement from the 50's. It is really the real beginning of the jazz messengers and a recording that was important in defining the new hard bop movement of the era. Should be a part of every jazz lover's library.

This bubbling brew of jazz by Horace and the Messengers is filled to the brim with funk, humor, and attitude. If you like Blue Note, or jazz in general, this is a cd you MUST have. It is certainly one of the greatest jazz recordings of all time with an all star lineup, including Hank Mobley and Art Blakey.

This CD got me hooked on Horace Silver and started my journey on exploring all of the great Blue Note artists of the 50's and 60's.

The Preacher and Doodlin' are classic Horace Silver compositions.

This is the first Jazz Messengers album which soon would go under the tutelage of Art Blakey. From there (read the book Hardbop Academy) the group would go through many line up changes and launch the careers of musicians from inspired (Wayne Shorter) to derivative (Wynton Marsalis) and many in between. This has to be my favorite Jazz Messengers album because most of the pieces on it would become jazz standards. Adding elements of soul and later funk to bebop to create the sub-genre known as hardbop does not sound like much today but it was an act to take away the idea of jazz as music for purely intellectuals and return it to its roots but still keeping it advancing in a new direction. Ever jazz musician with any degree of awareness would name check this album. But forgot the hyperbole. If you are a fan of classic hardbop, sooner or later you will run into this album and when you do, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.

The Preacher and Creepin In are insanely snappy, making this my favorite Silver recording. Early in the LP era here, this album always had good sound, now made even better with this reissue. The tunes are very soulful; this is not reminiscent of the pedal-to-the-metal Blakey/Silver albums with Clifford Brown @ Birdland. HS and the JM is much more of a hard-bop/bluesy album, the likes of which Silver seemingly effortlessly produced over the following 15 years after this was released.