Horace Silver was born in Norwalk, Connecticut on September 2, 1928. His father was from Cape Verde and his mother was half Irish and half African. Silver’s mother died when he was nine and his father raised him alone. He was a sickly child who suffered from scoliosis among other childhood ailments. Silver was influenced by the folk music his father played from Cape Verde. His interest in music increased over the years and when he was in high school he started to play saxophone and piano, but his main focus was piano.

Silver was discovered by Stan Getz when his trio backed Getz up in Hartford, Connecticut in 1950. Getz ended up bringing Silver’s trio on the road with him. Getz was also the first musician to record some of Silver’s tunes.

Here is the Horace Silver Quintet performing in 1959. If anyone knows that names of the other musicians in the band, please put them in the comments.