Blowin' the Blues Away

Blowin' the Blues Away is an album by the Horace Silver Quintet & Trio, recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on August 29–30 and September 13, 1959 and released on Blue Note later that year.^[6] The quintet features horn section Blue Mitchell and Junior Cook and rhythm section Eugene Taylor and Louis Hayes.^[7]

Blowin' the Blues Away
Studio album by the Horace Silver Quintet & Trio
Released	Early November 1959[1]
Recorded	August 29–30, 1959 September 13, 1959
Studio	Van Gelder Studio Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
Genre	Jazz
Length	42:54
Label	Blue Note BLP 4017
Producer	Alfred Lion
Horace Silver chronology
Finger Poppin' (1959) Blowin' the Blues Away (1959) Horace-Scope (1960)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[4]
DownBeat	[5]

Reception

In a contemporary review, Ralph J. Gleason called Blowin' the Blue Away a "lovely album" full of "fire and brimstone.... There is an esprit de combo here which is great to find.... We’re going to be playing this one for a long time, I suspect."^[5]

The ninth edition of the Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings places the album among its suggested "Core Collection" of essential recordings, saying that it exemplifies Silver's "virtues as pianist, composer and leader".^[3]

The AllMusic review by Steve Huey states, "Blowin' the Blues Away is one of Horace Silver's all-time Blue Note classics... one of Silver's finest albums, and it's virtually impossible to dislike."^[8]

Track listing

Side 1

No.	Title	Date recorded	Length
1.	"Blowin' the Blues Away"	August 29, 1959	4:44
2.	"The St. Vitus Dance"	September 13, 1959	4:09
3.	"Break City"	August 30, 1959	4:57
4.	"Peace"	August 30, 1959	6:02

All tracks are written by Horace Silver, except as noted.

Side 2

No.	Title	Date recorded	Length
1.	"Sister Sadie"	August 30, 1959	6:19
2.	"The Baghdad Blues"	August 29, 1959	4:52
3.	"Melancholy Mood"	September 13, 1959	7:10

1999 reissue bonus track

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Date recorded	Length
8.	"How Did It Happen"	Don Newey	August 30, 1959	4:41

Personnel

August 29–30, 1959

The Horace Silver Quintet

• Blue Mitchell – trumpet
• Junior Cook – tenor saxophone
• Horace Silver – piano
• Eugene Taylor – bass
• Louis Hayes – drums

September 13, 1959

The Horace Silver Trio

• Horace Silver – piano
• Eugene Taylor – bass
• Louis Hayes – drums

Technical personnel

• Alfred Lion – production
• Rudy Van Gelder – recording engineer
• Reid Miles – design
• Francis Wolff – photography
• Paula Donohue – cover art

References

1. Billboard Nov 23, 1959
2. Allmusic Review
3. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1298. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
4. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 181. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
5. Gleason, Ralph J. (31 March 1960). "Review of Blowing the Blues Away" (PDF). DownBeat. Retrieved 20 November 2023.
6. Blowin' the Blues Away. Blue Note 7243 4 95342 2, 1999, back cover notes.
7. Horace Silver discography. Retrieved November 17, 2009.
8. Huey, S. Allmusic Review. Retrieved November 16, 2009.