Jazz history to us, 21st century musicians living in Latin America, is something ethereal, unreachable. It's only through records, sheet music, some live auditions of some sidemen to the big names, and maybe one or two concerts from the top-tiers that we get some contact with it. And that's it. So, neither we are aware of the biographies of these people, overlooking that the names of the places where they were born would be just unfamiliar to us. Or maybe it is we feel we can really get to know someone through learning his song or transcribing his solo. Who knows.
I say this because it happened to me that when Horace Silver passed away, I was surprised that he was still alive. I didn't know that, even though I once gathered a band to play a complete set of his music, maybe not as a homage, but rather like a pretext to play something different, tired of the all-for-swing school here.
I remember as well, that when finally his name as a composer came to my understanding -not when i first read or heard it, I discovered he had been around in some of the records that now I consider to be the most determining in my career: Camilo's Through my hands, Blue Note record's, Blue bossa, cool cuts from the tropics and the GRP Big Band's live.
I started studying his music as a deeper insight into ornamentation, but then I discovered his scores are full of musicality. I love that ludic feeling in his music, like in filthy McNasty, Sister Sadie, Capeverdean Blues, and that way his music can also sound thoughtful or mysterious, like in Nica's dream, Song for my father, Peace, or Silver Serenade.
Now, I just want to thank Mr. Silva for his music, which has touched this fellow in the 21st century, in an illogical country of Latin America.
