Monk on the Steve Allen's Tonight Show.

[Big Beat Steve]

Your bucket's got a hole in it. "Photobucket 3rd party temporarily disabled."

[Dan Gould]

30 minutes ago, Big Beat Steve said:

Your bucket's got a hole in it. "Photobucket 3rd party temporarily disabled."

Not on this side of the pond.

I've now had the opportunity to hear the purported Mobley with Monk tracks and all I can say is much ado about nothing.  I mean, Hank barely solos, and the sound is for shit. If its Hank, (I don't hear it that way) is this life changing? Is it desert island material? Would you listen to it more than once?

On the other hand, the interesting quote from the DB article is that Hank says playing with Monk he tried to stay in the upper register.  This seems to jibe with what some identified as indicators that the sax on these two tracks is not Hank (from the other earlier thread).  So that's sort of interesting.

But this is really uninteresting in the extreme due to the sound quality and the brevity.

Edited February 11, 2018 by Dan Gould

[JSngry]

That "roll up" into the altisismo register is something Teo did a lot. But neither the tone nor phrasing is not really Hank, not even remotely. It very much a "push-pull: feel that is rooted in Hawk in a way that Hank ((or Teo)  never was.

I'd like to throw out two  other possibilities for consideration - Lucky Thompson (seems improbable) or George Barrow. Barrow is a distinct possibility, since this appears to be Monk playing with Mingus' band of the time + Art Farmer. And George Barrow was a " tall, handsome, African-American." as evidenced by this:

 

But Teo's recollection seems pretty vivid and specific, and the player sounds more likely to be Teo than it does Hank, I mean, there is nothing about that playing that resembles Hank, even if there is not too much that resembles Teo as I've heard him. from that time.

[Dan Gould]

That Barrow fellow is not only tall and handsome but damn if he doesn't  look a lot like Hank. This will really tick off Don.

[Don Brown]

Another handsome tenorman for sure, and a good player as well, but I don't think he looks like Hank. It was definitely Hank that I saw on Steve Allen's October program. If the playing on the RLR disc is by Teo Macero then the music comes from a different edition of the Steve Allen show. This would be quite possible because Allen had jazz players on his show just about every week.

[JSngry]

And if there was an essentially/currently undocumented performance of Monk on the Tonight show with Art Blakey on drums, Hank on tenor would be a more likely possibility, right?

[Michael Weiss]

https://youtu.be/AiOZkqbE78o

Uploaded from a cassette I've had since the mid 1980s. FWIW Doesn't sound anything like Hank Mobley.

More corroboration on Robin Kelly's date of June 10, 1955:

https://ctva.biz/US/TalkShow/TonightShow_1954-55_SteveAllen_s1.htm

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

On 11/3/2022 at 11:20 PM, Michael Weiss said:

https://youtu.be/AiOZkqbE78o

Uploaded from a cassette I've had since the mid 1980s. FWIW Doesn't sound anything like Hank Mobley.

More corroboration on Robin Kelly's date of June 10, 1955:

https://ctva.biz/US/TalkShow/TonightShow_1954-55_SteveAllen_s1.htm

 

well if 55 never heard of it but the thing that i had listed 57 , w/ hank + art farmer.  But at this point who knows, If you have the tape in front of you maybe thats all there ever was.   Art Farmer wasnt the most reliable corroborator I suppse.  Awesome upload though my guy

Edited November 8, 2022 by chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez

[Gheorghe]

Well Mobley said in 1973 that besides Trane and Rollins he was the only one who could play right for Monk and says "he is not braggin´". 

But.......as much as I love Mobley and he is one of my favourite, I never think about his sound and phrasing as fitting for Monk. Griffin was very fine with Monk, and my favourite tenor saxophonist for Monk will ever be Charlie Rouse. 
I would have liked to hear a recording where Pat Patrick played with Monk for a short period.  
I also heard some late Monk with Paul Jeffrey, but somehow I don´t like that so much, Jeffrey has a quite overwhelming sound and seems to repeat a lot of phrases but it doesn´t come off as well as it was with Rouse. 

Same with Dexter Gordon: I like a lot of his music, especially "Manhattan Symphony", but that only rendition of "Ruby My Dear" on "Great Encounters" (a leftover from the "Manhattan Symphony" date, I don´t like it. Ruby My Dear or Midnight , the two Monk things I heard played by Dexter are disappointing for me. Well he did "Rhythm a ning" but you must not feel Monk to play that. Any player who plays on rhythm changes at a faster tempo could do that, a super fast Griffin as well as a laid back Dexter......

[JSngry]

Dexter also recorded "We See".