…by 10:45 that evening, Elena was back home in her studio apartment off 7th Street, on Avenue C, in an area of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village known as “Alphabet City”. Then at midnight, like every weekday night upon return from her evening classes, (which on Tuesdays and Thursdays included a photography class), she tuned in to her favorite DJ, Symphony Sid. Between developing prints in her makeshift darkroom—a curtain enclosed corner of the apartment—and noshing on a sandwich she’d picked up earlier from the little Italian eatery next door to McSorley’s tavern, she eagerly awaited the song request she’d called in at the top of the hour.
Finally, Sid announced the next play, and from his hot, finger poppin’ Blowin’ The Blues Away album, Horace Silver’s “Sister Sadie” came bopping over the airwaves. Abandoning the set of negatives she was about to develop, arms thrust up and out in a diver’s stance, Elena back flips onto her Murphy bed. With eyes shut, the usually reticent Elena let the music propel her to a world inside her head, where her voice wailed like Blue Mitchell’s trumpet, and her body, unfettered, danced.
At a Carnegie Hall concert the prior fall, Horace, the slight, hunched-over, slick-haired piano player, at one with his instrument, had kept her spellbound. From that time on, he was her hard driving, funky-be-bop-blues guy. And so it was, next to creating with the camera, Horace’s music was her second biggest passion. And one could say, Elena was a Horace Silver ‘groupie’, perhaps, before that term was ever coined.
— A vignette from the short story, ALEXIUS PAL, by Loretta Alexandra©2017
Horace Silver
Horace Silver (full name, Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver), was an American composer, pianist—one time tenor saxophonist—band leader, arranger, noted for his hard-bop, boogie-woogie, jazz & blues style. A native of Norwalk, Connecticut, he was born on September 2, 1928.
Early influences were orchestra leader Jimmie Lunceford, the great tenor saxophonist, Lester Young, and pianists, Thelonious Monk, Teddy Wilson, Nat King Cole, Bud Powell and Art Tatum. In December of 1950, Silver made his recording debute on the Stan Getz album, Stan Getz Quartet. Along with drummer Art Blakey, Horace Silver was a co-founder and co-leader of the legendary band, The Jazz Messengers. In turn, some of the noted modern jazz greats Silver influenced are Bobby Timmons, Ramsey Lewis, Cecil Taylor and Les McCann.
A vital performer for more than a half century—1946-2004—Silver’s legacy includes an impressive discography: 36 studio albums, 3 live albums and 7 compilation albums.
After having been away from the music scene as an active performer for approximately ten years, the latter part of which he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, Horace Silver died on June 18, 2014.
Loretta Alexandra 