Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Blakey (drums). From the album Soul Station (1960).
Especially important were two songs recorded by Horace Silver: “The Preacher” and “Señor Blues”, which exemplify the simplicity of the harmonic structure on which the much more elaborated solos are performed. The hard bop musicians were mostly black and didn’t agree with the concept that the cool jazz musicians had of swing.
The powerful rhythm of the hard bop artists had nothing to do with the sophisticated techniques used by the cool musicians. Al Cohn was an exception in the hard bop for being white and one of his recordings featured Horace Silver and Max Roach. Silver played within the tradition of blues, as opposed to the delicate sound that Californian musicians used to bring out from the same instrument.
After a brief introduction by Kelly, Mobley enters to play the theme and then begins his solo with very melodic phrases based on the blues. He keeps playing slowly, as if he were having a long conversation with someone. Then Kelly comes with a lot of swing and also plays a simple and relaxed solo. Soon Chambers appears with a comfortable and calm statement accompanied by the piano and the drums, and finally the group re-exposes the theme.
© Blue Note Records
