Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...
. The original version, on the album of the same title by Silver's quintet, was recorded on October 26, 1964. It has become a
jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive lis ...
and is probably Silver's best-known composition. According to Silver, the song was "in part inspired by our Brazilian trip. We got the Brazilian rhythm for this tune from that trip, and the melodic line was inspired by some very old Cape Verdean Portuguese folk music."
Composition
"Song for My Father" has a 24-bar AAB construction and is in 4/4 time.Meadows, Eddie S. (2013) ''Jazz: Research and Pedagogy'' (3rd ed.). Routledge. It was composed in
F minor
F minor is a minor scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature consists of four flats. Its relative major is A-flat major and its parallel major is F major. Its enharmonic equivalent, E-sharp mi ...
. It has a bossa nova feel and features a bass ostinato. "It contains only four chords: Fm9 - E9 - D9 - C9. The piece uses even eighth notes throughout, not swing eighths."
In his biography, Silver describes composing the song while attempting to use the
bossa nova
Bossa nova () is a style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a "different beat" that altered the harmonies with the introduction of unconventional chords and an innovativ ...
rhythm he had observed in Brazil. However, the melody reminded him of the Cape Verdean music he had heard from his father.
Original recording
The original version featured Silver on piano, with
Joe Henderson
Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent l ...
(tenor saxophone),
Carmell Jones
Carmell Jones (July 19, 1936 – November 7, 1996) was an American jazz trumpet player.
Biography
Jones was born in Kansas City, Kansas, United States. He started piano lessons at age five, and trumpet lessons at age seven. His first professional ...
(trumpet),
Teddy Smith
Theodore "Teddy" Smith (January 22, 1932, in Washington, D.C.—August 24, 1979, in Washington, D.C.) was an American jazz double-bassist.
Smith played with Betty Carter in 1960, and with Clifford Jordan (with whom he recorded the LP ''Bear ...
(bass), and
Roger Humphries
Roger Humphries (born January 30, 1944) is an American jazz drummer.
Born into a family of ten children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Humphries began playing drums at age four, and went professional at age 14. He led an ensemble at Carnegie Hall ...
The opening vamp ..leads to one of Silver's most affecting themes, and then to perfect solos by, respectively, the leader and Joe Henderson. Henderson's is one of the great motivically based solos in recorded jazz; all derived from his three opening notes.
In his improvisations on the track,
Silver evokes historical precedents in his use of blue notes, blues scale, and the use of mixolydian modal concepts on the dominant chord, and a swinging rhythm punctuated with silence. He also uses a blues scale on the dominant and tonic (F) chords, and flat thirds, fifths and sevenths.
In the second chorus, from the 25th bar, "Silver changes from harmony in thirds to harmony in fourths".
Two aspects of the accompaniment are just as important as the melody itself. First, the bassist plays only roots and fifths of the chords ..Second, the rhythm section breaks at measure 6 in every section. Both the bass pattern and the one-measure break occur consistently during the solos as well as the theme choruses, and provide an extra degree of continuity that helps tie the whole performance together.
Later versions and use
As of 2014, more than 180 versions of the song had been recorded.
The composition's opening bass piano notes were borrowed by
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from live ...
for their 1974 song "
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
"Rikki Don't Lose That Number" is a single released in 1974 by rock/jazz rock group Steely Dan and the opening track of their third album ''Pretzel Logic''. It was the most successful single of the group's career, peaking at number 4 on the ''Bi ...