Horace Silver: 'Blowin' the Blues Away'

I'm hard-pressed to think of a post-war jazz pianist-composer whose playing and compositions were as electrifying and addictive as Horace Silver's. Thelonious Monk and Bill Evans are certainly in the pantheon of exceptional player-songwriters. But Silver was really in a class by himself.

In addition to being a gorgeous balladeer and a lyrical hard-bop pi…