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A Savoy Revival: New OJCs from Hank Mobley & Yusef Lateef
by C. Andrew Hovan
Although the Concord Music Group acquired the legendary Savoy Records archives in 2017, the catalog has seen little reissue activity since. Founded in 1942 by Herman Lubinsky, Savoy earned distinction for documenting rhythm and blues, gospel, and jazz over several decades. The label captured many of bebop's pioneering voices--Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Clarke, and Dizzy Gillespie, among them--on a series of landmark recordings. By the mid-1970s, Savoy endured a turbulent stretch of shifting distribution deals, first aligning ...
Continue ReadingHanksgiving - A Tribute to Hank Mobley - Companion Mixtape
by Ludovico Granvassu
This mixtape is a fun-filled companion to the two parts of our show “Hanksgiving -A Tribute to Hank Mobley," giving even more insight in the legacy of Hank Mobley as a saxophonist and composer through some of his gems and some of the best renditions of his tunes. [Listen to Part 1 and Part 2] Happy listening! Playlist Hank Mobley “The Dip" Dippin' (Blue Note) 0:00 Ingrid Jensen “Avila and Tequila" Here on Earth (Enja) 7:54 ...
Continue ReadingHanksgiving - A Tribute to Hank Mobley - Part 2
by Ludovico Granvassu
This year our seasonal Hanksgiving episodes celebrates a musician that is a cult figure in the world of saxophonists and fans of the Blue Note catalogue, saxophonist and composer Hank Mobley. The show features a mix of Hank Mobley's tuens and renditions of his work by peers that were attracted by his brand of jazz firmly grounded in the blues and R&B roots that he had mastered in the years that preceded his first engagement, with Art Blakey and his ...
Continue ReadingHanksgiving - A Tribute to Hank Mobley, Part 1
by Ludovico Granvassu
For our seasonal Hanksgiving show, this year we pay tribute to Hank Mobley, both as a saxophonist and a composer, by playing music from his albums, which are a cornerstone of the Blue Note sound and catalogue, and renditions of his music by musicians that came after him. There's so much to love in Mobley's repertoire. Happy listening and happy Hanksgiving, so it may very well become your new favorite holiday, the jazz equivalent of Festivus for the ...
Continue ReadingDial "S" for Sonny
by C. Michael Bailey
Pianist Sonny Clark was culturally marginalized in much the same way as his contemporary Elmo Hope—both heroin-addicted jazz musicians in the 1950s: at the time, and romantically, a cliche. Both pianists have been sorely lumped into the “Bud Powell school of bop piano" which superficially may seem accurate until one considers the evolutionary continuum of jazz piano that places both Clark and Hope conceptually and stylistically beyond Powell. Clark was born in Georgia and raised outside of Pittsburgh. ...
Continue ReadingHard Bop: An Alternative Top Ten
by Chris May
Hard bop was the jazz centre of the world from the mid 1950s to the mid 1960s, producing many hundreds of immortal albums. Trying to whittle these down to a definitive Top Ten is fun--but it is a subjective and ultimately impossible exercise. In an attempt to dodge those hurdles, the list which follows takes a route a little less travelled and excludes the genre's most celebrated releases, among them: Miles Davis' Cookin' With The Miles Davis ...
Continue ReadingArt Blakey & The Jazz Messengers: Just Coolin'
by Mike Jurkovic
Great moments play all over Just Coolin', the new archival Blue Note Art Blakey release from 1959, recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio with Lee Morgan, Bobby Timmons and Jymie Merritt. For a bit of history, let's just point out that Hank Mobley was returning to the tenor chair he held from 1951-56, but which had just recently (for back then) been occupied by Shorter, and before him Benny Golson. Not the slightest expectation here. And should there have been ...
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