Sign-up to our e-mail newsletter and stay up to date on new recordings, our weekly special sales and promotions!
Hank Mobley
Albums
Often overlooked, perhaps because he wasn't a great innovator in jazz but merely a stellar performer, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was at the peak of his powers on Soul Station. [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Why any critic would think that Hank Mobley was at the end of his creative spark in 1963 -- a commonly if stupidly held view among the eggheads who do this for a living -- is [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
![Workout [Bonus Track]](/cache/JS/h1/130x130_on-sale_h19373bre2p.png)
This is one of the best-known Hank Mobley recordings, and for good reason. Although none of his four originals ("Workout," "Uh Huh,"
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
![Another Workout [RVG Edition]](/cache/JS/h4/130x130_on-sale_h42837hpqhn.png)
Reviewers called tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley underrated so many times that the word may as well have been his middle name, and when combined with the numerous financial, [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
![Roll Call [Expanded]](/cache/JS/f4/130x130_f44301ch3u3.jpg)
From the moment when Art Blakey comes crashing in to establish a kinetic Latin groove on the eponymous opening song, Hank Mobley's {Roll Call [Expanded]} explodes with energy. The [more]
- Member Price: $11.98
This LP has material from 1961 that for no real reason went unreleased until 1985. One song, "Three Coins in a Fountain," is from the same session that resulted in tenor saxophonist [more]
- List Price: $31.98
- Member Price: $28.78
Hank Mobley was a perfect artist for Blue Note in the 1960s. A distinctive but not dominant soloist, Mobley was also a very talented writer whose compositions avoided the predictable [more]
- List Price: $28.98
- Member Price: $26.08
Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley has been called underrated so many times that the word may as well have been his middle name, and when combined with the numerous financial, [more]
- List Price: $31.98
- Member Price: $28.78
The Hank Mobley of the Turnaround album was a markedly different one from a few years earlier. This session issued in early 1965 was the product of two different sessions. The first was [more]
- List Price: $31.98
- Member Price: $28.78
Appearances
This unusual set (reissued on CD by Blue Note) was one of the most successful uses of a gospel choir in a jazz context. Trumpeter Donald Byrd and a septet that also includes tenor [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Often overlooked, perhaps because he wasn't a great innovator in jazz but merely a stellar performer, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was at the peak of his powers on Soul Station. [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
...Compositionally, these alblums are outstanding...the result is a well-produced and very complete survey of Herbie Hancock's early maturity. -The Wire (02/99, p.51)
From the start of his solo recording career in 1962, when he was 22, Herbie Hancock was a very original pianist/composer. Strangely enough, despite the [more]
- Member Price: $105.98
The first classic album by the Horace Silver Quintet, this CD is highlighted by {"Señor Blues"} (heard in three versions, including a later vocal rendition by Bill [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Why any critic would think that Hank Mobley was at the end of his creative spark in 1963 -- a commonly if stupidly held view among the eggheads who do this for a living -- is [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
This CD compilation collects three separate sessions recorded by Donald Byrd and Doug Watkins for Transition with various small groups. The 1955 recordings (first [more]
- List Price: $33.98
- Member Price: $23.96
This two CD collection was originally released as part of Blue Note's 60th Anniversary boxed set. Jimmy Smith, who was signed by Alfred Lion after he [more]
- List Price: $33.98
- Member Price: $23.96
Considered Kenny Dorham's finest recording of his all-too-short career, this re-reissue has been newly remastered and presumably now includes all of the takes from these nonet and sextet [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $11.98
Takin' Off was an impressive debut effort from Herbie Hancock, and his second record, My Point of View, proved that it was no fluke. Hancock took two risks with the album -- his [more]
- List Price: $17.98
- Member Price: $11.98
Curious listeners who encounter Lee Morgan for the first time through this single-disc anthology will come away mightily impressed, even inspired, but they will be hearing only the [more]
- List Price: $16.99
- Member Price: $11.98
Biography
- Born Jul 7th 1930 in Eastman, GA
- Died May 30th 1986 in Philadelphia, PA
One of the Blue Note label's definitive hard bop artists, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley remains somewhat underappreciated for his straightforward, swinging style. Any characterization of Mobley invariably begins with critic Leonard Feather's assertion that he was the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone," meaning that his tone wasn't as aggressive and thick as John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins, but neither was it as soft and cool as Stan Getz or Lester Young. Instead, Mobley's in-between, "round" (as he described it) sound was controlled and even, given over to subtlety rather than intense displays of emotion. Even if he lacked the galvanizing, mercurial qualities of the era's great tenor innovators, Mobley remained consistently solid throughout most of his recording career. His solo lines were full of intricate rhythmic patterns that were delivered with spot-on precision, and he was no slouch harmonically either. As a charter member of Horace Silver's Jazz Messengers, Mobley helped inaugurate the hard bop movement: jazz that balanced sophistication and soulfulness, complexity and earthy swing, and whose loose structure allowed for extended improvisations. As a solo artist, he began recording for Blue Note in the latter half of the '50s, and hit his peak in the first half of the '60s with hard bop cornerstones like Soul Station, No Room for Squares, and A Caddy for Daddy.
Henry "Hank" Mobley was born on July 7, 1930, in Eastman, GA, and grew up mostly in Elizabeth, NJ. Several family members played piano and/or church organ, and Mobley himself learned piano as a child. He switched to the saxophone at age 16, initially modeling his style on players like Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, Don Byas, and Sonny Stitt. He soon started playing professionally in the area, and built enough of a reputation that trumpeter Clifford Brown recommended him for a job without having heard him play. That job was with Paul Gayten's Newark-based R&B band, which he joined in 1949, doubling as a composer. He departed in 1951 and joined the house band at a Newark nightclub, where he played with pianist Walter Davis, Jr. and backed some of the era's top jazz stars. That led to a job with Max Roach, who hired both Mobley and Davis after performing with them; they all recorded together in early 1953, at one of the earliest sessions to feature Roach as a leader. Meanwhile, Mobley continued to gig around his home area, playing with the likes of Milt Jackson, Tadd Dameron, and J.J. Johnson, among others; he also served two weeks in Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1953.
Mobley spent much of 1954 performing and recording with Dizzy Gillespie. He left in September to join pianist Horace Silver's group, which evolved into a quintet co-led by Art Blakey and dubbed the Jazz Messengers. Their groundbreaking first album for Blue Note, 1955's Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, was a landmark in the genesis of hard bop, with its sophisticated solos and bright, almost funky rhythms. Mobley led his first session for Blue Note, The Hank Mobley Quartet, in 1955, and recorded for Savoy and Prestige during 1956. In the middle of that year, the original lineup of the Jazz Messengers split, with Blakey keeping the name and Silver forming a new group. Mobley stayed with Silver until 1957, by which time he had begun to record prolifically as a leader for Blue Note, completing eight albums' worth of material over the next 16 months. Some of his best work, such as Hank Mobley and His All Stars and The Hank Mobley Quintet, was cut with a selection of old Messengers mates. Not all of his sessions were released at the time, but some began to appear as import reissues in the '80s. Often composing his own material, Mobley was beginning to truly hit his stride with 1958's Peckin' Time, when a worsening drug problem resulted in an arrest that took him off the scene for a year.
Upon returning to music in 1959, Mobley oriented himself by rejoining Art Blakey in the Jazz Messengers for a short period. His comeback session as a leader was 1960's classic Soul Station, near-universally acknowledged as his greatest recorded moment. Mobley cut two more high-quality hard bop albums, Roll Call and Workout, over 1960-1961, as well as some other sessions that went unreleased at the time. In 1961, Mobley caught what looked to be a major break when he was hired to replace John Coltrane in Miles Davis' quintet. Unfortunately, the association was a stormy one; Mobley came under heavy criticism from the bandleader, and wound up leaving in 1962. He returned to solo recording with 1963's No Room for Squares, often tabbed as one of his best efforts, before drug and legal problems again put him out of commission during 1964. Energized and focused upon his return, Mobley recorded extensively during 1965, showcasing a slightly harder-edged tone and an acumen for tricky, modal-flavored originals that challenged his sidemen. At the same time, Dippin' found a funkier soul-jazz sound starting to creep into his work, an approach that reached its apex on the infectious A Caddy for Daddy later that year.
Mobley recorded steadily for Blue Note through the '60s, offering slight variations on his approach, and continued to appear as a sideman on a generous number of the label's other releases (especially frequent collaborator Lee Morgan). 1966's A Slice of the Top found Mobley fronting a slightly larger band arranged by Duke Pearson, though it went unissued until 1979. After cutting the straightforward Third Season in 1967, Mobley embarked on a brief tour of Europe, where he performed with Slide Hampton. He returned to the U.S. to record the straight-ahead Far Away Lands and Hi Voltage that year, and tried his hand at commercially oriented jazz-funk on 1968's Reach Out. Afterward, he took Hampton's advice and returned to Europe, where he would remain for the next two years. 1969's The Flip was recorded in Paris, and Mobley returned to the States to lead his final session for Blue Note, Thinking of Home, in 1970 (it wasn't released until ten years later). He subsequently co-led a group with pianist Cedar Walton, which recorded the excellent Breakthrough in 1972.
Sadly, that would prove to be Mobley's last major effort. Health problems forced him to retire in 1975, when he settled in Philadelphia. He was barely able to even play his horn for fear of rupturing a lung; by the dawn of the '80s, he was essentially an invalid. In 1986, he mustered up the energy to work on a limited basis with Duke Jordan; however, he died of pneumonia not long after, on May 30, 1986. During Mobley's heyday, most critics tended to compare him unfavorably to Sonny Rollins, or dismiss him for not being the innovator that Coltrane was. However, in the years that followed Mobley's death, Blue Note hard bop enjoyed a positive reappraisal; with it came a new appreciation for Mobley's highly developed talents as a composer and soloist, instead of a focus on his shortcomings. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
©2010 The Jazz Store. All Rights Reserved.
The Jazz Store - 1710 Highway 35 - Oakhurst, NJ 07755