Hank Mobley's "In Between" Blue Note sessions

[Shrdlu]

These are the four sessions not included in the two Mosaic sets: the first ran from March 27, 1955 through February 9, 1958, and the second, recent, set starts with a 1963 session. They were right not to include these sessions in the latter set, they being easy to get, as well as very weill known. There won't be much in this post that most of you won't know.

The sessions produced the albums

"Soul Station", February 7, 1960

"Roll Call", November 13, 1960

"Workout", March 26, 1961

"Another Workout", December 5, 1961.

To put these in context, "Roll Call" comes just before Hank joined Miles Davis (he joined December, 1960), and Hank was gone from Art Blakey's group before "Soul Station". Hank's first recording with Miles was on March 7, 1961, and he left Miles early in 1962.

These sessions are primo work by all participants, who were all in their prime. One could argue that they are the best of Hank's recordings, but we can enjoy both these and all the others. Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers are constants, and we are treated to two of the very best drummers: Art Blakey and Philly Joe Jones, as well as appearances by Freddie Hubbard and Grant Green, both starting out at Blue Note. Can't go wrong with all this.

It is all high energy stuff, and I love it all. Hank has a particularly nice tone on these.

Please, it's "Three Coins in THE fountain." This is the theme song from a nice 1954 romantic movie set in Rome. I saw that when it first came out. The fountain is the Trevi monstrosity. The song, by Victor Young, was recorded by one Frank Sinatra. Frank sang it in C, but Hank plays it in Bb. Maybe he read the concert pitch score for it and played it in the tenor saxophone's C. Either key is easy.

The title "A Baptist Beat" is absurd. I like the tune a lot, but it is in no way Baptist. I have preached, as a missionary, in over 250 independent Baptist Churches in America (in most States) and ain't no way that that is Baptist in style. But it's a good tune.

My sources for these albums are the U.S. RVG CDs, except for "Workout", for which I have the 2015 Japanese CD with the extra take of "Three Coins".

Enjoy again.

[felser]

Agreed those albums are highlights in his catalog.

[Gheorghe]

The mentioned Mobley albums are the best and I have all of them and LISTEN to them.

On the other hand, from the many many 50´s albums, I don´t listen so regularly to all of them, same with the post 1963 albums, I listen to "Dippin Inn" which is one of the best of that later period, but if I say "today I´m in the mood for an hour of Mobley, it´s mostly Soul Station or the other four mentioned.

And maybe Mobley was not really into religion, Maybe when he was not playing he was after dope, like many of his generation....., and maybe he just penned out a tune and gave it a title since he thought it sounds like some church music,  or maybe Alfred Lion asked him to do something "with a churchy, groovie beat" (as Lion said in his german-english : yes , dot schwings). and not knowing how Baptists or other religions sound as music, he gave it that title.

 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

Hank must of had a deep understanding of music history to pull so many old songs out, some of his older picks are perplexing, and have never been done otheriwise in jazz.  someone he knew had a 78 collection or he listened to a lot of radio or something, i dont have specifics on this

[Shrdlu]

Those standards were well-known. I have known them for ages. Nice picks.