1st Generation: The Horace Silver Quintet - "Song For My Father" (1964)
Horace Silver's classic Blue Note release "Song For My Father" from 1964 had a memorable opening bass piano line that became legendary. Actually, the complete song is 7 minutes of jazz bliss. He was known more as a hard bop artist but there are definitely some bossa-nova touches here. A wonderful tribute to his father.
2nd Generation: Steely Dan - "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" (1974)
Steely Dan's biggest hit "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" opened with the aforementioned bass piano line of Horace Silver's. The song goes in a very different direction thereafter, but the opening notes are memorable, once again.
3rd Generation: Us3 - "Eleven Long Years" (1993)
Here is Horace Silver's famous bass piano line taken in another direction again on "Eleven Long Years" by the rap/jazz band Us3. They released their debut album 'Hand on the Torch' in 1993. It was a Blue Note label remix project that set the stage for many jazz/hip-hop hybrids to follow... but not many reached the heights of this album. Although, it must be said that Miles Davis had successfully merged the two genres when he worked with hip-hop artists for his 'Doo-Bop' album recorded in 1991 and posthumously released in 1992 (and that will be the subject of a future blog post). Maybe that was where Us3 got their inspiration from.
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