Mitch Frohman: Bronx ambassador to Latin Jazz

Latin Beat Magazine, August, 1998 by Max Salazar

"I've been aware of Horace Silver," said Frohman, "since my late teens...to record his music is a wish come true...this tribute to Silver has been possible thanks to Todd Barkan...he persuaded Timeless Records to give us a shot."

Horace Tavares-Silver, born in Norwalk, Connecticut, September 2, 1928, studied tenor sax and piano in high school. He was discovered by Stan Getz while Silver was Harold Holdt's pianist. After a year with Getz (1950-51), Silver settled in New York and gigged with Art Blakey, Terry Gibbs, Coleman Hawkins, Oscar Pettiford, Bill Harris and Lestor Young. Silver won Downbeat magazine's A New Star Award. He organized his quintet in September, 1956. New Yorkers of the '50s and '60s who listened to the Symphony Sid jazz show got to know Silver via his compositions of Sister Sadie, Home Cookin, Sayonara Blues and especially Señor Blue, heard almost nightly along with trumpeter Donald Byrd's Christo Redentor.

During a seven month span in 1997, seven crackerjack musicians --Oscar Hernández on piano, Bobby Porcelli on alto sax, Ray Vega on trumpet, Bennie Minoso on bass, Jimmy Delgado on timbales, Chembo Corneil on congas and Mitch Frohman on tenor and flute-- united at the Clinton Recording Studios in New York City. They latinized ten Silver tunes to produce The Silver In The Bronx Horns. Another milestone in the growing popularity of The Bronx Horns.