JAZZ REVIEWS : Horace Silver Makes Healthy Comeback

Since introducing his enlarged Silver Brass Ensemble a year ago at Catalina Bar & Grill, pianist Horace Silver made a successful album, but a serious illness prevented him from touring to promote it. Tuesday night he brought the same group back to the Hollywood club for an engagement that continues through Sunday.

Silver’s return to good health and to the club scene is welcome news to the jazz community.

A prolific composer, Silver, who made his debut as a leader four decades ago, basically writes melodic statements arranged for his six-piece brass section (three trumpets, French horn and two trombones). The blend he achieves with this instrumentation is one of three reasons for the group’s attractive personality. The others are Silver at the piano, jaggedly sharp in his rhythmically propulsive statements, and Red Holloway, whose tenor sax solos are invariably delivered with fire.

Silver hasn’t rejected his earlier values. One tune, “Blues for Brother Blue,” was named for Blue Mitchell, a sideman in one of his quintets. Another was a revamped arrangement of his 1958 hit “Senor Blues.”

Except for a couple of solos by George Bohanon on trombone and one by Ron Stout on trumpet, the brass members worked mainly as a unit, backed by a rhythm team to which drummer Carl Burnett and bassist Bob Maize were steady and sturdy contributors.