"Rockin' with Rachmaninoff", a musical work featuring dancers and narration, written by Silver and choreographed and directed by Donald McKayle, was staged in Los Angeles in 1991. A recording of the work was released on Bop City Records in 2003. After a decade of trying to make his independent label work, Silver abandoned it in 1993, and signed to Columbia Records. This also signalled a return to mostly instrumental releases. The first of these, "It's Got to Be Funky", was a rare big band album. Silver came close to dying soon after its release: he was hospitalized with a previously undiagnosed blood clot problem, but went on to record "Pencil Packin' Papa", containing a six-piece brass section, in 1994. That year, he also played as a guest on Dee Dee Bridgewater's album "".