In tribute to Michael Cuscuna, the great jazz-reissue record producer and Mosaic co-founder who died April 19, I thought I'd feature one of my favorite Hank Mobley albums today as a Backgrounder.
Michael found Poppin' in the Blue Note vaults when he was there and released the album for the first time in 1980. If not for Michael, we wouldn't have many of the Blue Note albums that we have today that were released under his stewardship. Michael operated assertively partly out of outrage that these albums weren't already in the marketplace and partly out of a love for jazz listeners who deserved them.
The album was recorded in October 1957 and featured Hank Mobley (ts), Art Farmer (tp), Pepper Adams (bs), Sonny Clark (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Philly Joe Jones (d). A stunning lineup—the smokey quality of Mobley, the gentle dancing style of Famer, the grunting of Adams, coupled with the elegance of Clark, the thick time keeping of Chambers and the polyrhythms of Jones.
Here's Hank Mobley's Poppin' without ad interruptions. Miss ya Michael...
Michael found Poppin' in the Blue Note vaults when he was there and released the album for the first time in 1980. If not for Michael, we wouldn't have many of the Blue Note albums that we have today that were released under his stewardship. Michael operated assertively partly out of outrage that these albums weren't already in the marketplace and partly out of a love for jazz listeners who deserved them.
The album was recorded in October 1957 and featured Hank Mobley (ts), Art Farmer (tp), Pepper Adams (bs), Sonny Clark (p), Paul Chambers (b) and Philly Joe Jones (d). A stunning lineup—the smokey quality of Mobley, the gentle dancing style of Famer, the grunting of Adams, coupled with the elegance of Clark, the thick time keeping of Chambers and the polyrhythms of Jones.
Here's Hank Mobley's Poppin' without ad interruptions. Miss ya Michael...
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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