Hank Mobley's "Curtain Call"

[Shawn]

Hank played with all the greats of the era, but with a special few he had a chemistry that was otherworldly.

Kenny Dorham

Wynton Kelly

Lee Morgan

I've always suspected that Hank's rendering of Deep In A Dream on this date prompted Clark to revisit it with Ike Quebec a couple years later.

[Chuck Nessa]

I remember back in the '70s Cuscuna sent me a cassette of the session (I still have it) looking for personel and song titles. Some time later I bugged him about releasing it. He came back with "you and Kenny Washington". He said everyone else found the date depressing. I love it.

[BruceH]

I remember back in the '70s Cuscuna sent me a cassette of the session (I still have it) looking for personel and song titles. Some time later I bugged him about releasing it. He came back with "you and Kenny Washington". He said everyone else found the date depressing. I love it.

"Depressing"?? WTF?

I love it too. How could anyone find it depressing?

[Soul Stream]

I feel like I was in good company with Chuck and Kenny Washington....

[michel1969]

That's really great.  Could you tell more specifically about the gig at the Angry Squire?  The circumstances.  Maybe what TUNES they played and any particular ones Hank seemed to shine on.  Thanks for the memories (so to speak), I think I speak for many others on the board who could have only hoped to have such a nice brush with greatness.  Not a lot of first hand stuff about Hank floating around.

I don't remember what tunes were played. The singer Lodi Carr was fronting the gig. I was stuffed in a standing-room-only area and it was difficult to concentrate. This was twenty years ago.

Also, Just what were those chords and scales Hank hipped you to on Deep In A Dream?   (any chance you'll record this on an upcoming release?)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To my dismay as well as yours, I don't remember any more than I told already. I wish there was more to it than that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for telling the story. Great one.

something about this set....

New York Times

[bertrand]

I remember back in the '70s Cuscuna sent me a cassette of the session (I still have it) looking for personel and song titles. Some time later I bugged him about releasing it. He came back with "you and Kenny Washington". He said everyone else found the date depressing. I love it.

Chuck,

Were you able to identify any song titles at the time? I know that Michael was sending tapes to people around at the time, since he didn't have Alfred's session logs yet.

In this case, wouldn't it have been easier to just ask Hank, assuming he could track him down? He more than anyone would have known the titles.

Bertrand.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

wait what was cuscanas criteria for who he mailed tapes to, people he knew who liked jazz? like the pre-organissmo, organismo list or something? what other items did he share with people. are other tapes known by collectors?

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

michael, come on, do you remember one thing about how hank was improvising and sounding in that whole Hank Mobley experience? was it a quartet INCLUDING the singer, or was there a piano player too? Pressing into riskier memory territory, do you remember which ones of hanks old songs he played, if any?

[Michael Weiss]

michael, come on, do you remember one thing about how hank was improvising and sounding in that whole Hank Mobley experience? was it a quartet INCLUDING the singer, or was there a piano player too? Pressing into riskier memory territory, do you remember which ones of hanks old songs he played, if any?

At the Angry Squire gig he could barely get enough air into the horn to play it. Of course there was a piano player. I think it might have been Duke Jordan. I don't think Hank played any original tunes. I believe it was Lodi Carr's gig.

[mikeweil]

Hank played with all the greats of the era, but with a special few he had a chemistry that was otherworldly.

Kenny Dorham

Wynton Kelly

Lee Morgan

I think Philly Joe Jones belongs on that list, too!

[mikeweil]

I will pull out Curtain Call for breakfast tomorrow. The Mobley Mosaic box is one of those I need not be anxious to get when it hits Last Chance ...

[BruceH]

Hank played with all the greats of the era, but with a special few he had a chemistry that was otherworldly.

Kenny Dorham

Wynton Kelly

Lee Morgan

I think Philly Joe Jones belongs on that list, too!

I might add Sonny Clark to that list as well.

[clifford_thornton]

Vince Bendetti?

[Chuck Nessa]

wait what was cuscanas criteria for who he mailed tapes to, people he knew who liked jazz? like the pre-organissmo, organismo list or something? what other items did he share with people. are other tapes known by collectors?

I received a few tapes in the '70s. All that springs to mind is some Herbie Nichols material. That was issued, without the slates which are included on the tape I received.

[bertrand]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a slate in this context?

Thanks,

Bertrand.

[Chuck Nessa]

announcements of tune titles or more often take numbers to identify the recording.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i find it amazing that hank didnt just pack up and quit if he was in so much pain: he was still playin' gigs in 1986. that is a true dedication

[AmirBagachelles]

Thanks for the heads up on this; I am listening to Roll Call this morning, an all-timer burning session that keeps on giving... cheers, Dan

[makpjazz57]

michael, come on, do you remember one thing about how hank was improvising and sounding in that whole Hank Mobley experience? was it a quartet INCLUDING the singer, or was there a piano player too? Pressing into riskier memory territory, do you remember which ones of hanks old songs he played, if any?

At the Angry Squire gig he could barely get enough air into the horn to play it. Of course there was a piano player. I think it might have been Duke Jordan. I don't think Hank played any original tunes. I believe it was Lodi Carr's gig.

I was there. I believe it was a 2 night gig? The night I was there was definitely Duke Jordan on piano and I remember Hank sounding better for the second set - more like Hank. I also vividly remember going over to the Jazz Baroness' table to meet Mobley and ask him to sign a small black and white promo photo, which he signed "Peace and Love, Hank Mobley." I feel bad I don't remember the rest of the musicians there and sad to say I don't remember Lodi Carr. Nothing against them - I was just in a trance of disbelief that I was actually in the same room as Hank Mobley and getting to hear him live with Duke Jordan.

Marla

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i cant believe it was in 1986 and no one recorded it

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

HANK MOBLEY QUINTET

Slugs--242 East 3rd Street, New York

Hank Mobley (Tenor Sax)

Bobby Hutcherson (Vibes)

Charles Tolliver (Trumpet)

John Ore (Bass)

Billy Higgins (Drums)

this would of been so sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (from an actual slugs handbill)

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

or what about this bill

A TRIBUTE TO LESTER YOUNG

Club Ruby--Jamaica, Queens, New York

Includes: Hank Mobley (Tenor Sax)

Jimmy Heath (Tenor Sax)

Junior Cook (Tenor Sax)

George Coleman (Tenor Sax)

Roland Alexander (Tenor Sax)

Joe Henderson (Tenor Sax)

Frank Foster (Tenor Sax)

Clifford Jordan (Tenor Sax)

John Gilmore (Tenor Sax)

Benny Powell (Trombone)

Date: September 25, (Year Unknown).

[John L]

i find it amazing that hank didnt just pack up and quit if he was in so much pain: he was still playin' gigs in 1986. that is a true dedication

I imagine that Hank was probably still playing at the time because he needed the money. He ended up in poverty.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I learned Deep in a Dream off of this great record. I played it for Hank after nearly everyone had left the jam session that followed the Town Hall Blue Note concert of 1985. While I was playing he was egging me on with stuff like "yeah, come up this chord, now come down that scale." A precious memory. As most people in-the-know know Hank wasn't invited and appeared anyway. At the end of the night he apparently lost his overcoat, had no money, so Kenny Washington and I cabbed him to Penn Station and gave him trainfare back to Philly.

I once asked Michael Cuscuna about this and he says that he tried like hell to find Mobley for that Town Hall Blue Note concert and no one knew his whereabouts. Michael was bummed out that Hank wasn't going to be there. He said it was almost a shock to turn around that night and see Hank standing there. They didn't know what to do - the whole night was planned out - so they had him just walk out and say a few things.

Kevin

[michel1969]

michael, come on, do you remember one thing about how hank was improvising and sounding in that whole Hank Mobley experience? was it a quartet INCLUDING the singer, or was there a piano player too? Pressing into riskier memory territory, do you remember which ones of hanks old songs he played, if any?

At the Angry Squire gig he could barely get enough air into the horn to play it. Of course there was a piano player. I think it might have been Duke Jordan. I don't think Hank played any original tunes. I believe it was Lodi Carr's gig.

I red on another forum , a couple of times ago, that there were probably also Ron Carter and Al Harewood.

That makes = Mobley, Jordan, Carter, Harewood (Hank Mobley Quartet plus Lodi Carr, or Lodi Carr and Hank Mobley Quartet ?)

Edited October 24, 2008 by Michel