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Hank Mobley: Soul Station
by Greg Simmons
Music Matters continues to release exceptionally high quality, all analog reissues of classic Blue Note Records' albums from the golden mid-century age of small-combo jazz. They've recently upped their game with the introduction of a higher-quality raw material formulation they call SRX Vinyl. Hank Mobley was Blue Note Records' most prolific artist, with over thirty albums released under his own name, countless sessions as a sideman, and—according to his own telling in a rare interview shortly before he ...
Continue ReadingHank Mobley: The Complete Hank Mobley Blue Note Sessions 1963-70
by C. Andrew Hovan
The music world has changed considerably since Michael Cuscuna and Charlie Lourie founded their boutique reissue label Mosaic Records back in 1983. From its inception, vinyl was still the preferred format, shortly to be overtaken by the popularity of the compact disc. At the cusp of vinyl's recent resurgence, Mosaic briefly got back into that format only to find themselves on the brink of closing up shop. Fortunately, the powers that be have forged on and recent CD boxed sets ...
Continue ReadingHard Bop Tenor - Harold Land, Teddy Edwards, Hank Mobley (1956 - 1963)
by Russell Perry
"Hard bop both needed and got a kind of second wind in the early sixties, and this had something to do with Ornette Coleman's rejection of conventional chord changes, but it had far more to do with developments inside the school: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Coltrane's evolution, and the influences of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. These developments rescued hard bop from its own formulas, emboldening its young practitioners to cut loose and to expand what the school could ...
Continue ReadingHank Mobley: Hank Mobley
by Greg Simmons
During the 1950s and '60s Hank Mobley was an especially prolific musician. In addition to many dates as a sideman, his string of 26 or so records under his own name for Blue Note certainly makes him the one of, if not the label's productivity champion. Most of his dates are excellent performances, yet somehow his name has faded from the public conscious. Jazz people know him of course--we thrive on even the smallest esoteric historical details, after all--but Mobley ...
Continue ReadingHank Mobley: Soul Station - 1960
by Marc Davis
Hank Mobley is a mystery to me. On the one hand, I mostly love his relaxed style of bop. Sometimes it's round and smooth, sometimes rock hard, sometimes full of soul and funk. What's not to like? On the other hand, the same relaxed style can sometimes seem lazy. Critics sure thought so. At his peak in the 1950s and '60s, Mobley was pretty widely ignored by critics. His playing seemed effortless and lacking innovation. At ...
Continue ReadingHank Mobley: Dippin' – Blue Note 4209
by Marc Davis
1965 was an interesting year musically, and Hank Mobley's Dippin' tries--mostly successfully--to capture all of it. It's a hodgepodge of styles that were very popular that year, ranging from soul to pop, hard bop to bossa nova. It's a fun listen--but don't expect any kind of consistent feel. The record pairs two of the standard-bearers of 1960s Blue Note soul-jazz: Mobley on tenor sax and Lee Morgan on trumpet. While you can enjoy Dippin' without knowing ...
Continue ReadingHank Mobley and his All Stars – Blue Note 1544
by Marc Davis
I think I've hit a wall. I love hard bop. I love Blue Note. But all of a sudden, the thrill is gone. This week, I'm listening to Hank Mobley and his All Stars, a 1957 album that could never be accused of false advertising. This truly is an all-star hard bop band: Hank Mobley on tenor, Milt Jackson on vibes, Horace Silver on piano, Art Blakey on drums and Doug Watkins on bass. This is, ...
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