This set, caught at an open-air concert on a sunny afternoon in Bremen almost 40 years ago, finds the pianist and composer Horace Silver, who died in June aged 85, with a band young enough to be his own children. They are all very good but, with the exception of trumpeter Tom Harrell, every phrase they play has 1977 stamped on it, whereas the themes and the piano-playing bear the Silver hallmark of true originality. A mixture of yearning romantic and slightly hyperactive joker, his musical personality was all his own and fashion had nothing to do with it. He was priceless and is much missed.
