Horace Silver - 1952
The first recording of ‘Ecaroh’ is a trio version from 1952. The second version is on the very first ‘Jazz Messengers’ album (1956). There would be another 46 studio albums under the ‘Jazz Messengers’ name over the years.
Horace Silver’s ‘Ecaroh’ will surely get the sound of a sharp 9 chord in your ears! This is a tension filled chord when played “exposed” as Silver does here, but it can be heard as a dominant chord with a flatted third. The b3 is, of course, used extensively in the blues.
There is also an example of a sharp eleven chord. This is interesting in much the same way as the #9 because the #11 can be heard as a flat five (b5) which is used a lot in bebop.
Be sure to spend some time trying to capture Silver’s touch and rhythm here. It really makes the song come alive.
When he moves into the improv section he plays an unstructured blues using the minor pentatonic scale (Example 2) almost exclusively. The improv is also a great example of Silver’s signature left hand rhythmic “growl” (root and 5th).
