Hank Mobley

[Eric]

Glad this thread popped up (pun intended).  I need to go back and read Larry’s chapter again.

Always had a very soft spot for the three LT albums, although I don’t click with Slice as much as some do.  I do love the one that Cuscuna put out in 1985 or so with Donald Byrd, I can see the cover but the same escapes me.  Oh Far Away Lands.  For a while those were the only four that were easy to find.

And YES Dippin’!!!

[sidewinder]

‘Far Away Lands’. Yes, that one was a real welcome surprise when it came out over here on a French DMM LP.

[bertrand]

On 7/1/2013 at 4:09 AM, robertoart said:

You remembered right. I listened to this session for the very first time yesterday, after reading this thread. On Summertime Mobley plays some stuff that is on an unaccompanied solo tangent. This is very brittle stuff. I'm very glad to have been made aware of this album.

The opening solo portion of Summertime is actually thr first movement of the Thinking of Home Suite. It works really well in that Algerian war film soundtrack

[Gheorghe]

13 hours ago, Eric said:

Glad this thread popped up (pun intended).  I need to go back and read Larry’s chapter again.

Always had a very soft spot for the three LT albums, although I don’t click with Slice as much as some do.  I do love the one that Cuscuna put out in 1985 or so with Donald Byrd, I can see the cover but the same escapes me.  Oh Far Away Lands.  For a while those were the only four that were easy to find.

And YES Dippin’!!!

From the mid-sixties albums "Dippin´" is my favourite. 
He made so many albums for the BN Label I lost the trace. Most mid-fifties albums under his name are very very similar, not only from the personnel, but also from the album titles. The Mobley from the fifties I like most is with the 1954-55 Messengers, and very very nice on "Date with Jimmy Smith", and he holds his own on "A Blowing Session"....
If I choose one single album that I´d keep it would be "Soul Station". 
Many praise his last BN album "Thinking of Home" but I have the impression that you already hear that Hank has breathing problems that affect his playing....

[Holy Ghost]

8 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

From the mid-sixties albums "Dippin´" is my favourite. 
He made so many albums for the BN Label I lost the trace. Most mid-fifties albums under his name are very very similar, not only from the personnel, but also from the album titles. The Mobley from the fifties I like most is with the 1954-55 Messengers, and very very nice on "Date with Jimmy Smith", and he holds his own on "A Blowing Session"....
If I choose one single album that I´d keep it would be "Soul Station". 
Many praise his last BN album "Thinking of Home" but I have the impression that you already hear that Hank has breathing problems that affect his playing....

Soul Station, Roll Call, Straight No Filter...Wayne Shorter and Hank do have a lot in common: great composers and players, albeit their own styles and education. Love every single record Hank cut for BN (leader and sideman) and plus. Great composer, unique sound and style. One of my top five favorites. 

I like the way you put that...

If I was to take one album to my albums of Hank Mobley albums to my Hank Mobley album island, it'd be Third Season. 

[jazzbo]

I certainly hear those breathing problems, but I might take "Thinking of Home" as the only Mobley album. There's just such an involving sense of what the Brazilians call "saudade." I really become wrapped up in that album in ways I don't with many many others. An excellent blend of composition, arranging and playing.

Edited May 15, 2022 by jazzbo

[Holy Ghost]

1 hour ago, jazzbo said:

I certainly hear those breathing problems, but I might take "Thinking of Home" as the only Mobley album. There's just such an involving sense of what the Brazilians call "saudade." I really become wrapped up in that album in ways I don't with many many others. An excellent blend of composition, arranging and playing.

Yeah, that.

No Room For Squares was it, then from that, I really like the "mature" Mobley circ, 63-70. Caddy For Daddy, Reach Out! I really dig those records. Hank can write!!

Edited May 15, 2022 by Holy Ghost

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

BN was getting nuts and Hank was recording at a time of great change not just musically but in buisiness and society 

[mikeweil]

There's a reason that Mosaic released box sets of Mobley's 1950's and 1960's albums, and wanted to do another box with the four with Wynton Kelly (Soul Station etc.) which were all released on Blue Note as single CDs. And not just because Cuscuna is a Mobley fan. There was no Shorter box, Henderson only recently. Only Dexter Gordon was collected in a Blue Note box. It was a very satisfying run of albums. Well, I'm a fan .... 

[Holy Ghost]

1 hour ago, mikeweil said:

There's a reason that Mosaic released box sets of Mobley's 1950's and 1960's albums, and wanted to do another box with the four with Wynton Kelly (Soul Station etc.) which were all released on Blue Note as single CDs. And not just because Cuscuna is a Mobley fan. There was no Shorter box, Henderson only recently. Only Dexter Gordon was collected in a Blue Note box. It was a very satisfying run of albums. Well, I'm a fan .... 

Yup. 

[robertoart]

On 14/5/2022 at 2:20 AM, bertrand said:

The opening solo portion of Summertime is actually thr first movement of the Thinking of Home Suite. It works really well in that Algerian war film soundtrack

Ah the Algerian war film soundtrack 

I think that's where you'll find the elusive Mobley performance footage. 

[Gheorghe]

10 hours ago, robertoart said:

Ah the Algerian war film soundtrack 

I think that's where you'll find the elusive Mobley performance footage. 

I remember somewhere I read a 1973 interview with Hank Mobley (it must have been the time when he already was in bad shape and forgotten), that he had really bitter feelings about BN and that they didn´t record his movie score and didn´t release all his recordings.

Well I thought they recorded him so much, it´s quite strange that he complained about them. 

On the other hand: Somewhere I have read that Mobley was present at the 1985 BN festival in NY, where almost all surviving BN artists performed, but of course he couldn´t play anymore, but it was reportet he made a speech. Is there any photos of him from that event ? 

[Dan Gould]

4 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

 

On the other hand: Somewhere I have read that Mobley was present at the 1985 BN festival in NY, where almost all surviving BN artists performed, but of course he couldn´t play anymore, but it was reportet he made a speech. Is there any photos of him from that event ? 

There was a box set of LPs issued which included a 45 of Hank's speech. A group of us went in on a joint purchasing effort and I sent out burns to all members. Damn that was almost 20 years ago, I am thinking.

[Eric]

32 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

There was a box set of LPs issued which included a 45 of Hank's speech. A group of us went in on a joint purchasing effort and I sent out burns to all members. Damn that was almost 20 years ago, I am thinking.

Wow, was that from the old BN board days?  Dan - any recollection of the general content of his speech?

[Gheorghe]

24 minutes ago, Eric said:

Wow, was that from the old BN board days?  Dan - any recollection of the general content of his speech?

somewhere I heard or read that he said something a bit weird about the difficulties they had to find him and announce him the event. 
Then he said something that he thought he is the oldest member, but learned that Lou Donaldson was the oldest member. 

I´m not sure he said that, but maybe. I also hope someone has more recollection of the general content of his speech. And fotos. 
I heard somewhere that at the same time or later he played his last gig in NY. I heard some you tube of it but of course it is sad, but I never saw photos of Hank when he was a bit older. Almost all photos on album covers show a very young smiling man in his late 20´s, early 30´s.....

Maybe the last photo I saw was on the back cover of a 1968 album, which strange to say shows Hank in Paris, though the album was done in NY. But he really looks handsome on it....

[sidewinder]

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

There was a box set of LPs issued which included a 45 of Hank's speech. A group of us went in on a joint purchasing effort and I sent out burns to all members. Damn that was almost 20 years ago, I am thinking.

Yes Dan - I was one of that cohort and somewhere I have those ‘burns’, if I can find them . It was from a Japanese issue box of those LPs, as I recall.

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, Eric said:

Wow, was that from the old BN board days?  Dan - any recollection of the general content of his speech?

Early on Organissimo - I still have a folder of emails labelled Mobley Box Set - mid-July 2005 to be exact.

Gheorge has the details pretty much. It was a rather short speech.

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I think I have that burn somewhere too... maybe I stuck it inside one of the CD cases?

I remember asking Michael Cuscuna about that night and I think he said that no one could find him beforehand but on the night of the concert he just showed up. They didn't know what to do with him - they knew he couldn't play - so he just wandered up on stage and gave that speech.

I don't think it was planned.

[Dan Gould]

1 hour ago, Gheorghe said:

somewhere I heard or read that he said something a bit weird about the difficulties they had to find him and announce him the event. 
Then he said something that he thought he is the oldest member, but learned that Lou Donaldson was the oldest member. 

I´m not sure he said that, but maybe. I also hope someone has more recollection of the general content of his speech. And fotos. 
I heard somewhere that at the same time or later he played his last gig in NY. I heard some you tube of it but of course it is sad, but I never saw photos of Hank when he was a bit older. Almost all photos on album covers show a very young smiling man in his late 20´s, early 30´s.....

Maybe the last photo I saw was on the back cover of a 1968 album, which strange to say shows Hank in Paris, though the album was done in NY. But he really looks handsome on it....

In 1980 Hank was at the Steeplechase studios for a Tete Montoliu session, I Want to Talk About You.  They recorded several takes of two tunes and when it appeared on CD one Hank tune was included ("Autumn Leaves") along with a photo of Hank. I posted that photo years ago but I think the thread was lost in one of the server mishaps - can't find it on a search.

Edit to add: it's funny how we forget things, Gheorge was on the board and posted on some of the threads I found about the Montoliu recording.

Edited May 24, 2022 by Dan Gould

[Chuck Nessa]

That record was made during the time I ran the US office of SteepleChase. Somewhere i have a couple of 8 x 10 photos from the session, one a lovely head shot.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

2 hours ago, Chuck Nessa said:

That record was made during the time I ran the US office of SteepleChase. Somewhere i have a couple of 8 x 10 photos from the session, one a lovely head shot.

so, you knew,in 1980, that Hank was at that session?  did you know his song was not gonna be on the record.  Did you not hear it until the CD came out years later.  

[sidewinder]

By some fluke I found the ‘syndicate’ CDs with the 45rpm bonus. Most of it is taken up with speeches by Alfred Lion, Ruth Lion and RVG. Hank gets a big round of applause at the end as he goes to the stage, tells the Lou Donaldson story about which of them was the oldest on Blue Note and that was about it.

[Dan Gould]

57 minutes ago, sidewinder said:

By some fluke I found the ‘syndicate’ CDs with the 45rpm bonus. Most of it is taken up with speeches by Alfred Lion, Ruth Lion and RVG. Hank gets a big round of applause at the end as he goes to the stage, tells the Lou Donaldson story about which of them was the oldest on Blue Note and that was about it.

Now I remember the other people who were included on the 45. (I should dig out my CDRs, I always thought my transfers sounded pretty darn good for a cheap rig.)

[sidewinder]

22 minutes ago, Dan Gould said:

Now I remember the other people who were included on the 45. (I should dig out my CDRs, I always thought my transfers sounded pretty darn good for a cheap rig.)

Michael Cuscuna makes a brief appearance introducing Hank as well.

Yes, good job with the transfers.

[Gheorghe]

Thank you, that means my memory was right, that he only said something about who is the oldest, Lou or him. 

15 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

In 1980 Hank was at the Steeplechase studios for a Tete Montoliu session, I Want to Talk About You.  They recorded several takes of two tunes and when it appeared on CD one Hank tune was included ("Autumn Leaves") along with a photo of Hank. I posted that photo years ago but I think the thread was lost in one of the server mishaps - can't find it on a search.

Edit to add: it's funny how we forget things, Gheorge was on the board and posted on some of the threads I found about the Montoliu recording.

Thanks Dan Gould, I think some day I might purchase that CD. It´s always a bit difficult for me, since I´m more the musician type listener and less the collector. But Mraz-Al Foster sounds great. What a pity they chose "Atumn Leaves" as the only tune with Mobley: I mean nothing wrong with the tune and the Miles version with Wayne and Herbie is some of the greatest music ever, but I don´t like it , that on jam sessions so many of the not really good musicians want to play it..... , too bad they didn´t choose some of those fine Mobley compositions......

I read the old thread and one of the guys answers that he doesn´t like Al Foster . Different tastes, Foster is my favourite drummer and if I had those "three wishes" like in Pannonica´s book, one of them would be to play a gig with Al Foster on drums .....

I think I even saw that little photo of Hank Mobley on google pictures, I didn´t recognize him, a very old man with white hair.....