Robert Silverman shown at one of his performances (2015). The consummate jazz artist has produced 15 albums and almost 800 compositions.
His roots are in R&B, but his heart and soul never left jazz. After more than 5 decades of making music, Robert Silverman is still hitting the keys and singing the tunes.
For the past 19 years, the consummate musician who sports a Duke Ellington mustache has been a fixture at NYC’s Ashford & Simpson Sugar Bar on the upper West Side.
The venue was founded in 1996 by the legendary husband-and-wife Motown duo and has been a hotspot for celebrities ranging from Stevie Wonder and Cyndi Lauper to Michael Douglas and Whoopi Goldberg.
With its intimate ambiance and soft African-themed décor, the Sugar Bar today is managed by Valerie Simpson’s brother, Jimmy. (Nicholas Ashford died in 2011).
Over coffee at his home in Riverdale, New York, Silverman recounts his musical journey as a composer and instrumentalist with some of the icons who defined the American beat.
“Jackie McLean was my first major jazz hero because I studied with him for 2 years,” he says.
A hard bop saxophonist in the early days, McLean rubbed musical elbows with the likes of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, and Sonny Rollins.
He went on to establish the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School of Performing Arts.
Growing up outside New Haven, Connecticut, Silverman was a theater major at Trinity College and taking exchange classes with McLean when his life was transformed.
“While my friends were doing homework, I was learning progressions on the piano.”
Unable to concentrate on the school’s staid and structured curriculum, he dropped out to pursue jazz, all the while not telling his parents.
It was the beauty and boundless experimentation of jazz that drew him to the sounds.
“Jazz is the art of being in 2 places at the same time,” he points out. “The melody stays the same, but you have to play something different over the top and still relate to the melody.”
Silverman was always musical, playing the piano and trumpet since the age of 9 and forming his first blues band at 16.
In high school, he was the lead horn blower when the Hamden High School orchestra won the state competition at the inaugural Quinnipiac Jazz Festival.
At the time, New Haven enjoyed a lively R&B scene and clubs such as Toad’s Place, one of the last still standing, was a regular whistle stop for Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and many others.
Silverman played the gigs in New Haven but then packed up for Boston when he left Trinity. In Beantown, the aspiring jazz artist took on odd jobs to support his music, from working in a liquor store to being employed as a security guard.
He formed the Robert Silverman New Art Trio and started packing halls in Cambridge and the greater Boston area when it became a quartet.
One day, he got a call from Ron Levy, BB King’s longtime pianist. Levy had toured with King all over the world, including the music festival at the ‘Rumble-in-the-Jungle’ Ali-Foreman fight in Zaire.
Levy asked Silverman to join his own band in the horn section. He had a knack for the business side of club entertainment and soon enough, Silverman was blowing New Orleans style funk almost every night of the month.
Worn out after a year and realizing he never finished college, he enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music where he earned a degree in Jazz Studies.
He put the horn aside for the keyboard after a teacher told him, “You’re good with the trumpet, but I think your soul is with the piano.”
Still in Boston, he was now opening for luminaries in the jazz world such as Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, and Betty Carter, and performing on local TV and radio.
One of his most memorable nights was jamming with Albert King at the Paradise Rock Club on Commonwealth Avenue.
Silverman was standing outside the club with his band when King’s Econoline bus, emblazoned on the side with “I’ll Play the Blues for You”, pulled up.
“Albert comes out with a 10-gallon cowboy hat and he’s already around 6 foot 4,” he recalls of the towering figure.
When Silverman introduced himself and said that he played with Ron Levy, King replied “If you’re good enough for Levy, you’re good enough for me.” Levy was one of King’s protégés.
Silverman then asked him if they could play together one day and King responded, “How about tonight?” He was astounded at King’s unexpected invitation.
“Next thing I know, the roadies were grabbing my organ and putting it on stage next to Albert King without my ever rehearsing a note with him.”
He played the whole concert and King liked him enough that he joined the group at NYC’s Lonestar Café in Greenwich Village.
Silverman relocated to Gotham in 1985 and after a couple of years was hiring cutting edge cats and filling haunts like the Angry Squire in Chelsea.
He was also the house pianist at ‘Birdland’ and opened acts for Brazilian artist, Eliana Elias, and Freddy Cole, Nat King Cole’s brother.
His creative edge never lost its luster and to this day, he pours out sheets of compositions.
“Not everything I write is going to be good. But within that, there are going to be some gems.”
His first CD, ‘Sacred Ground’, came out in 1996 and his 2nd, ‘Driving’, was selling at Tower Records when the retail chain was still around. ‘Golden Heart’ was his first on Spotify when the industry went digital and his most recent is ‘The Inner Touch’.
Overall, Silverman produced 15 albums and composed almost 800 pieces, most of which didn’t make it into the recording studio since he never worked with a record label, or an agent.
Besides entertaining jazz revelers at the Sugar Bar, Silverman keeps busy teaching jazz history classes at the 92nd Street Y and lately, introducing music to dementia patients.
“With everything that is happening in the world, I look at music as an oasis and try to create beauty.”
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Thanks, Kevin. I haven't known Robert long, but from the short time that I've been exposed to him and his music, he certainly deserved a journalistic shout-out.
Great piece of music journalism - about a great musician. I've heard Silverman's bands several times over the years and it's always a thrill. Especially at the Sugar Bar - which is always a great night out in the city. Robert Silverman's so much more than just another jazz cat. His long years of study, his understanding, his ear and his ability to play off the other great musicians who work with him lifts standards, old R&B, New Orleans dark and dirty, and his many original tunes to places that would scare a lesser musician. So good to learn something about where he comes from. I don't always know where he's going, but when I can catch his show, I'm always glad to be there.