Ever Wonder How Hank Sounded At One of His Final Known Gigs?

[Dan Gould]

Hank Mobley with Duke Jordan at the Angry Squire, NYC, Friday November 22 1985. Unfortunately this is the only recording featuring Hank that exists due to an equipment malfunction.

What do you think? To me, its still Hank and I actually like this performance better than the performance of "Autumn Leaves" that turned up on the Tete Montoliu trio release on Steeplechase.

Hank would be dead in six months and a week.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Dan Gould

[AllenLowe]

fascinating clip - I used to go to the Angry Squire a lot in the late '70s, early '80s (Al Haig's last gig was there, as a matter of fact). Barry Harris used to work there a lot (they had an upright which didn't sound too bad). With Hank one can hear that the spirit is willing, and the ideas are fighting to get out, though the chops are suffering.

Duke Jordan is one of my favorite pianists ever; I didn't know he came back to town in the '80s, I knew him in the middle '70s when he was living in St. Albans, a middle class black section of Queens, where Lester Young had also lived.

do you know who else is in the rhythm section?

[Peter Johnson]

Thanks for posting, Dan. I'm on the fence about hearing this--it fills me with some sadness, knowing what the "situation" was--but you're right, it is indeed Hank.

[Dan Gould]

Sorry Allen I should have just quoted from the Youtube page:

Hank Mobley - tenor sax

Duke Jordan - piano

Jimmy Rowser - bass

Vernel Fournier - drums

(quartet plays "Blues Walk" as a warm up before featured vocalist, Lodi Carr, joins the band for this second set of the evening)

Angry Squire

216 Seventh Ave bet 22 & 23 Streets, New York, NY

Friday, Nov. 22, 1985

11:35 p.m.

(this is the only tune featuring Hank Mobley from this private recording that exists due to equipment malfunction)

If you go to the youtube page you'll see our friend Aric has already commented.

[Chuck Nessa]

I couldn't get past the first minute or two. Dang.

[sjarrell]

[CJ Shearn]

Damn, Hank sounds almost like a baritone and very out of tune, but the ideas are unmistakable.

[jlhoots]

Damn, Hank sounds almost like a baritone and very out of tune, but the ideas are unmistakable.

Good to hear.

The piano is more out of tune than Hank is.

[Stereojack]

I couldn't get past the first minute or two. Dang.

Me too. Painful.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

his tone and technique are not the same but you can tell its still the Mobe- i will have more info on this for you guys shortly. go '80s hank.

(for point of reference, this was the #1 single on the charts the week of the gig....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdj9NRzqC4 )

[Larry Kart]

Believe it or not, I think I was at that gig -- just happened to be in town. My reaction at the time was the same as Chuck's now; musically (and of course in human terms) it was a slow-motion train wreck. Vocalist Lodi Carr BTW was looking after pianist Chris Anderson at the time (and Hank to some extent, too, IIRC). She had her hands full. I think that she tried to take care of Chris until the very end. Kind of a Polly Podewell figure (a probably obscure Chicago reference -- Podewell was a good-looking [if you liked her type] Chicago-based, blonde-haired singer of about my age or maybe a little younger [i'd guess she was in her late 30s or early 40s in the 1980s] who became intensely but seemingly maternally attached to Woody Herman when [or perhaps shortly before] Woody's life went all to hell financially, physically, and otherwise in the '80s and who stepped in to take care of him until the end under often harrowing circumstances. I'm not sure how the original connection between them was made; perhaps Polly sang with the band for a time.)

Here's Polly in 1995:

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-You-Know-I-Care/dp/B000001UR1

[Dave James]

I wonder who among us would have successfully identified Hank if this video had been posted in the form of a blindfold test,. I know I wouldn't have. I love Mobley, but to me, this doesn't sound even remotely like him. I couldn't make it all the way through this. Very sad.

[bertrand]

Yes, I find the piano to be a lot more of an issue.

Bertrand.

[brownie]

I couldn't get past the first minute or two. Dang.

Me too. Painful.

Give te music a chance! It gets better after the first two minutes and Mobley sounds more in focus.

Nothing like prime Mobley but worth listening to...

Thanks Dan for putting the link in!

[Michael Weiss]

I was there that night, and it was kinda depressing. He sounds better listening to this now than I remember from the gig. With all that Hank had been through - losing his teeth, a lung - for him to be on that bandstand, going for it like that, I give him all the props in the world. In whatever diminished capacity he was in, it was unmistakably HANK. And yes I would have recognized him instantly. If you're familiar with his playing on Cedar's Breakthrough date you would hear it. Dig Hank's quote of Mambo Bounce around 3'45".

Edited October 17, 2010 by Michael Weiss

[JSngry]

Not recognize him? Who else could it be?

Within himself, Hank Mobley was probably one of the most intense motherfuckers who ever lived.

I don't know if "music" really matters here. Life sure does, though, and life...is what it is. Sometimes there's blood. sometimes lots of it.

In-fucking-tense.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

hank lost his teeth and a lung???

it just sucks how, like, at this same time, sonny rollins would be playing to 10,000 people at like europe kool jazz fest or something, and hank was in a little bar in new york all sick........

[Dan Gould]

I didn't think of it in those specific terms but yeah, while listening to this I was wondering what Hank got for the gig - $50 for the night? $100? Or just a share of the door, if there was a cover?

[AllenLowe]

funny, the piano tuning didn't bother me, I just thought that Jordan played exceptionally well. Even Hank held my interest - there was something in the ideas that showed clearly what he was going for, even if he couldn't make it.

I remember when Hank was booked at the Tin Palace, maybe mid-late '70s, with Barry Harris. Everybody showed up except for Hank.

[Brad]

I wonder who among us would have successfully identified Hank if this video had been posted in the form of a blindfold test,. I know I wouldn't have. I love Mobley, but to me, this doesn't sound even remotely like him. I couldn't make it all the way through this. Very sad.

Agree wholeheartedly. Not the Hank I want to remember.

[John Tapscott]

I couldn't get past the first minute or two. Dang.

Me too. Painful.

Give te music a chance! It gets better after the first two minutes and Mobley sounds more in focus.

Nothing like prime Mobley but worth listening to...

Thanks Dan for putting the link in!

Agreed. The first couple of minutes are pretty rough, but then Hank pulls it together for a reasonably decent solo. If I'd heard this on a blindfold test I don't think I would have gotten him.

Edited to say that on a 2nd listen I think it's better than I first thought - it's actually pretty good under the circumstances - Hank's tone is rough but the ideas are still there. The rhythm section is very good and that helps. You can hear Hank get on a bit of a roll as Fournier begins to push. This is the kind of jazz solo I really like more and more - telling a story, putting the phrases together in a logical and satisfying way, easy for a layman to follow. And yes, there are some typical Hank phrases and especially phrase-endings that mark it out as clearly and only Hank, though the tone is so different from early Hank that I kind of missed missed them first time through.

Edited October 8, 2010 by John Tapscott

[Dan Gould]

These were my thoughts too except that I'd like to think that I'd recognize Hank's sound even though its closer to the Breakthrough! recording than the BNs.

[B. Clugston]

(for point of reference, this was the #1 single on the charts the week of the gig....... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsdj9NRzqC4 )

Aagh!!!! Now that is painful.

[carnivore]

I had to stop listening after a couple of minutes. Tragic deterioration.

[Peter Friedman]

Very sad to hear Hank play so poorly. Duke Jordan played a fine solo though the piano deserved to be burned,