Captain Beyond's Files: THE HORACE SILVER QUINTET : Song For My Father (1964)

Not much to say about this one. An instant jazz standard, this song has been covered numerous times. It was inspired by Horace Silver's trip to Brazil, see below.

From wicn.org:

"Song for My Father," Horace Silver's most commercially successful song, was inspired by the Portuguese music that his father so loved. Rosenthal quotes Silver’s description of how he came to write it: "My dad through the years had always said to me, ‘Why don’t you take some of this Portuguese folk music and put it into jazz?’ I never could see it. To me it always seemed corny – because I was born here into American music, whether it be jazz or whatever. But there is a feeling there: there’s something there that’s valid. I didn’t really get in tune with that feeling until I was invited by Sergio Mendes to his house in Rio de Janeiro. I went to see Carnival and went around to different places he was playing and sat in, and I was fascinated by the musical capabilities of some of the young musicians down there. They were all into this bossa nova thing, which as you know was greatly inspired by our American jazz. I got turned onto that beat. So I got back to New York and I said, ‘I’ll try to write a tune using that rhythm.’ I started fooling around and I came up with the melody and I realized the melody I came up with was akin to Cape Verdean – like something my dad would play. That was ‘Song for My Father.’"

"Song for My Father" was introduced as the title track on Silver’s 1964 Blue Note Records album and the album cover featured a picture of Silver’s father. The album was a best seller for Blue Note and ranks as one of the greatest mainstream hard bop recordings. Its title song had a notable influence on pop music, with the jazz-rock group Steely Dan borrowing the opening piano notes for their greatest pop hit, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number", and Stevie Wonder borrowing the opening horn riff for his song "Don't You Worry ‘Bout a Thing".