Silver Jews

A "here's-some-music-that's-influenced-us" mix, the 11th entry in the LATE NIGHT TALES series is an eclectic album compiled by the English folk-pop duo Turin Brakes. There's a mellow, downtempo vibe here, and a good bit of variety, with the likes of Chris Whitley and Gillian Welch sequenced alongside Talk Talk, Grant Green, J.J. Cale, and Silver Jews. Turin Brakes make a musical appearance with a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Moonlight Mile," which fits nicely into this blissfully low-key 17-song set.

“Silver Dreams: The Complete Albums 1975-1980” is a fitting and thorough testament to a band that truly deserved to crossover into mainstream success. As a bonus, this collection’s 6th disc kicks off with the live, promo only “Live At The Tower Theatre, Philadelphia” from a 1977 concert whilst promoting their debut record. To complete the picture we go back to their very first recordings, with the aforementioned “The Official Unofficial BABYS Album”.

Silver Pozzoli started his solo career in 1984, having previously been the project's singer. His biggest hit titled "Around My Dream" made it into the German TOP 10 and hit the charts in many other countries in Europe. The double CD "Greatest Hits & Remixes" provides an overview of the career of the Italian star. In addition to the radio versions on CD1 and remixes on CD2, there are two exclusive and previously unpublished megamixes.

Horace-Scope is the third album by Horace Silver's classic quintet - or most of it, actually, as drummer Louis Hayes was replaced by Roy Brooks starting with this session. The rhythmic drive and overall flavor of the group are still essentially the same, though, and Horace-Scope continues the tight, sophisticated-yet-swinging blueprint for hard bop pioneered on its two classic predecessors. The program is as appealing as ever, and even though not as many tunes caught on this time - at least not on the level of a "Juicy Lucy" or "Sister Sadie" - Silver's writing is tuneful and tasteful. The best-known selections are probably the lovely closing number "Nica's Dream," which had been around for several years but hadn't yet been recorded on a Silver LP, and the genial, laid-back opener "Strollin'"…

The 1957 Horace Silver Quintet (featuring trumpeter Art Farmer and tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley) is in top form on this date, particularly on "My One and Only Love" and their famous version of "Home Cookin'." All of Silver's Blue Note quintet recordings are consistently superb and swinging and, although not essential, this is a very enjoyable set.

Following a series of concert dates in Tokyo late in 1961 with his quintet, Horace Silver returned to the U.S. with his head full of the Japanese melodies he had heard during his visit, and using those as a springboard, he wrote four new pieces, which he then recorded at sessions held on July 13 and 14, 1962, along with a version of Ronnell Bright's little known ballad "Cherry Blossom." One would naturally assume the resulting LP would have a Japanese feel, but that really isn't the case. Using Latin rhythms and the blues as a base, Silver's Tokyo-influenced compositions fit right in with the subtle cross-cultural but very American hard bop he'd been doing all along…