Pianist, producer, teacher, and (with Art Blakey) co-founder of The Jazz Messengers - they were an attempt to return jazz to a party-music aesthetic in the age of bebop hermeticism; the bluesy, funky results helped usher in the hard bop era, and established a sound that would be associated with Silver, the Messengers, and Blue Note Records for many years. On his own, he had several hits, like "Song for My Father", and many have apprenticed in his quintets.