A decade into his recording career, pianist Horace Silver made an album that would remain the crown jewel of a catalog brimming with many hard bop classics. “Song For My Father” captured the transition of his quintet with two tracks taken from an October 1963 session with Blue Mitchell, Junior Cook, Gene Taylor, and Roy Brooks. A year later, Silver re-entered Val Gelder Studio with a new group featuring Carmell Jones, Joe Henderson, Teddy Smith, and Roger Humphries for a session that yielded four more tracks, including what would become his signature song, “Song for My Father,” a dedication to his father inspired both by his Cape Verdean heritage and the music Silver had heard on a recent trip to Brazil.