"This autobiography of Horace Silver, the great jazz composer, pianist, and bandleader, takes us from his childhood in Norwalk, Connecticut, through his rise to fame in New York, to his comfortable life "after the road" in California. During his long career, Silver played with legendary musicians, recorded a number of classic albums, and composed an impressive repertoire of tunes that have become standards. In Let's Get to the Nitty Gritty, Silver also describes the spiritual awakening he underwent in the 1970s, a transformation that found expression in the electronic and vocal music of a three-part work called The United States of Mind and eventually led him to start his own record label, Silveto.

Silver details the economic forces that persuaded him to put Silveto to rest and to return to the studios of such major jazz recording labels as Columbia, Impulse, and Verve, where he continued expanding his catalogue of new compositions and making recordings that are at least as impressive as his earlier work. Silver's irrepressible sense of humor combined with his distinctive spirituality make his account, which is well seasoned with anecdotes about the music, the musicians, and the milieu in which he worked and prospered, both entertaining and inspiring."--Jacket.