Jazz pianist Horace Silver was born in Connecticut in 1928. He was discovered by Stan Getz, but soon made a name for himself as co-lead of the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey. He formed his own quintet in 1956. This is the only live recording of that quintet in its original form. It was made in 1961 at the Village Gate in New York.
The Village Gate was a nightclub in on the corner of Thompson and Bleecker streets in Greenwich Village New York. It opened in 1958 and was founded by a jazz impresario. It closed down in 1994, with a promise to return two years later in another location. That closed again after just one year. In the years it was open, it was the location of numerous famous concerts and recordings in jazz.