Description
Critic Leonard Feather asserted that Hank Mobley was the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone, meaning that his tone wasnt as aggressive and thick as John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins, but neither was it as soft and cool as Stan Getz or Lester Young. 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.
Born in Eastman, Georgia, in 1930, but raised in New Jersey, Hanks long-lined tenor offerings became a staple for pianist Horace Silvers group, which evolved into the 50s super quintet co-led by Art Blakley, dubbed the Jazz Messengers. Their groundbreaking first album for Blue Note, 1955s Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers, was a hard bop landmark, featuring sophisticated solos and bright, almost funky rhythms. Mobley hit his peak in the first half of the 1960s with hard bop cornerstones like Soul Station, No Room for Squares, and A Caddy for Daddy.
On this Prestige offering, Mobley delivers his signature swinging style in three different variations. Four numbers are by the quintet in which Hank is helped by telegrapher Donald Byrd and his sending trumpet. They disseminate the information of two pronouncements from bops palmy days, Bud Powells Bouncin With Bud and Thelonious Monks 52nd Street Theme, plus two more numbers, Hanks Minor Disturbance and the groups Alternating Current.
For Charlie Parkers blues, Au Privave, the group becomes a sextet with the addition of a young turk of the alto sax, Jackie McLean.
Hank is the sole horn on Little Girl Blue.
Originally released in 1956
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