''Blowin' the Blues Away'' is an album by the

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 ...

Quintet & Trio, recorded at

Van Gelder Studio The Van Gelder Studio is a recording studio at 445 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, United States. Following the use of his parents' home at 25 Prospect Avenue, Hackensack, New Jersey, for the original studio, Rudy Van Gelder (1924 ...

Englewood Cliffs Englewood Cliffs is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 5,342, an increase of 61 (+1.2%) from the 2010 census count of 5,281, which in turn reflected a ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

on August 29–30 and September 13, 1959 and released on

Blue Note Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label now owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by German-Jewish emigrants Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue no ...

later that year. The quintet features horn section

Blue Mitchell Richard Allen "Blue" Mitchell (March 13, 1930 – May 21, 1979) was an American trumpeter and composer who worked in jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, rock and funk. He recorded albums as leader and sideman for Riverside, Mainstream Records, and Bl ...

and

Junior Cook Herman "Junior" Cook (July 22, 1934 – February 3, 1992) was an American hard bop tenor saxophone player. Biography Cook was born in Pensacola, Florida. A member of a musical family, he started on alto saxophone before switching to tenor du ...

and rhythm section Eugene Taylor and

Louis Hayes Louis Hayes (born May 31, 1937) is an American jazz drummer and band leader. He was with McCoy Tyner's trio for more than three years. Since 1989 he has led his own band, and together with Vincent Herring formed the Cannonball Legacy Band. He i ...

Reception

In a contemporary review, Ralph J. Gleason called ''Blowin' the Blue Away'' a "lovely album" full of "fire and brimstone.... There is an ''esprit de combo'' here which is great to find.... We’re going to be playing this one for a long time, I suspect." The ninth edition of the ''

Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on compact disc, CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions wer ...

'' places the album among its suggested "Core Collection" of essential recordings, saying that it exemplifies Silver's "virtues as pianist, composer and leader". The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

review by Steve Huey states, "''Blowin' the Blues Away'' is one of Horace Silver's all-time Blue Note classics... one of Silver's finest albums, and it's virtually impossible to dislike."Huey, S.

Allmusic Review AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the data ...

Retrieved November 16, 2009.

Track listing

Personnel

August 29–30, 1959

The Horace Silver Quintet

– trumpet *

– tenor saxophone *

– piano * Eugene Taylor – bass *

– drums

September 13, 1959

The Horace Silver Trio

* Horace Silver – piano * Eugene Taylor – bass * Louis Hayes – drums

Technical personnel

Alfred Lion Alfred Lion (born Alfred Löw; April 21, 1908 – February 2, 1987) was a German-born American record executive who co-founded the jazz record label Blue Note in 1939. Lion retired in 1967, having sold the company, after producing recordings by le ...

– production *

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including Booker Ervin, John Coltrane, Mil ...

– recording engineer *

Reid Miles Reid Miles (July 4, 1927 – February 2, 1993) was an American graphic designer and photographer best known for his work for Blue Note Records in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Miles was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 1927, but, follow ...

– design *

Francis Wolff Francis Wolff (April 5, 1907 – March 8, 1971) was a record company executive, photographer and record producer. Wolff's skills, as an executive and a photographer, were important contributions to the success of the Blue Note record label. Car ...

– photography * Paula Donohue – cover art

References

{{Authority control Horace Silver albums 1959 albums Blue Note Records albums Albums produced by Alfred Lion Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio