Hank Mobley Video Performance!

[Rooster_Ties]

Such a nice surprise too! — like outa nowhere — BAM! — there it is.  Short as it is, it really feels like a revelation.

We’ve got footage of Tina Brooks (with Ray Charles) — and of Dupree Bolton (of all people! — along with Curtis Amy)… and I’m sure I could cite a dozen other notable but obscure players from the 50’s and 60’s.

And now, suddenly… suddenly there’s footage of Hank — where this time yesterday there was none.

Kind of its own little (tiny) moment in jazz history… the day that suddenly we could affix the memory of a moving image in all our minds, to one Hank Mobley.

I suppose I’m being a little silly and over dramatic about it.

But seriously, how many of us will remember this footage when we think of Hank in the future? — and this time yesterday, NONE of us could do that (other than Dan, who’d already seen it).  That’s not nothin’.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Rooster_Ties

[Dan Gould]

3 hours ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

Mobley could of told ya how many times hed been under a TV camera.  

 

this is the holy grail, but you know the GRAIL GRAIL was the Mobley/Art Farmer line in front of MONKs band on the tonight show 1957, even if audio manifested, the europe stuff, heck id even say its a definetifte possibllity not necessarily of survival, but it probably wasnt the only time in europe someone filmed him. 

so nothing with Miles was recorded huh??

Looking at the Dutch Archives CD release from 2016, I believe the Pim Jacobs recordings were taken from a TV broadcast from a regular tv studio. So it wouldn't be new music necessarily but maybe there is video to match those tracks on the CD.

[JSngry]

Hank TV Show!!!

[bertrand]

16 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Quite recently. And Hank was not referenced in the contents which would help keep things hidden for decades.  Dollar Brand and Dexter were the recognized stars on the program, with the Hank recording given the opening spot.

What is intriguing is to consider if they recorded a whole set of Hank and company, with other tracks to be used on other broadcasts. If they continued to not list Mobley in favor of better known artists, there might be several other recordings in existence.

I was wondering about that!

6 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Looking at the Dutch Archives CD release from 2016, I believe the Pim Jacobs recordings were taken from a TV broadcast from a regular tv studio. So it wouldn't be new music necessarily but maybe there is video to match those tracks on the CD.

I thought about that when the CD came out. That CD in itself was a find! Love the big band tracks.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

22 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

Looking at the Dutch Archives CD release from 2016, I believe the Pim Jacobs recordings were taken from a TV broadcast from a regular tv studio. So it wouldn't be new music necessarily but maybe there is video to match those tracks on the CD.

absolutely - 

[JSngry]

Hey there Joe, now whaddya' know?

I'm a-lookin' at The Hank Mobley TV Show!!!!

[Rooster_Ties]

17 hours ago, bertrand said:

I thought about that when the CD came out. That CD in itself was a find! Love the big band tracks.

Absolutely love that CD — and, yes, the big band tracks especially (but the whole thing, really). One of the best historic releases of its kind (in a sort of quiet, unassuming way).  Would that every source of such material — notable soloists being backed by European groups and sidemen — be unearthed, and released so well (on CD).

[JSngry]

The Hank Mobley TV Show, brought to you by Dippin' Dots.

[Teasing the Korean]

This is fantastic, and the audio is really top notch.  I watched and listened through our Bose docking station, and it was practically studio quality. 

How strange - or maybe not - that there is no other footage of him.  

[Dan Gould]

Sergey tells me that he will be hoping for other recordings by Hank but it is likely to take some time ... he has to pay for research and not much exists of this program, JazzBeat.  So we can only hope more is found at some point.

[JSngry]

Maybe Hank was a "special guest" on the show and that's all there was?

It seemed like Tootie was trying to cue him out of his solo, like, okay, we gotta move along here. Hank stops playing and looks at him like oh, okay, right 

Maybe. 

[Dan Gould]

34 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Maybe Hank was a "special guest" on the show and that's all there was?

It seemed like Tootie was trying to cue him out of his solo, like, okay, we gotta move along here. Hank stops playing and looks at him like oh, okay, right 

Maybe. 

Shades of his audition on the Tete Montoliu recording session?

I don't think so at all because the location is ID'd as Montmartre, and from the audience recording that circulates and the Japanese CD issued a few years ago, we know he gigged with this group at that club.

Maybe they were told on the opener that it needed to be less than a certain amount of time but it doesn't seem to me as a non-musician that his solo ends abruptly. Where do you see Tootie cueing him?

[JSngry]

That bigass press roll at the end of his second chorus. Hank is about to go for a third, watch his breathing. But Tootie's roll stops him cold. Watch him, you can see it on his face 

[jazzbo]

Photo by / © Shigeru Uchiyama

Hank Mobley, 1985
 

Edited August 31, 2022 by jazzbo

[jlhoots]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

That bigass press roll at the end of his second chorus. Hank is about to go for a third, watch his breathing. But Tootie's roll stops him cold. Watch him, you can see it on his face 

Love Tootie. Lives here now & still playing!!!

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

1 minute ago, jlhoots said:

Love Tootie. Lives here now & still playing!!!

can you show him the video and ask him about what theyre talking about

[jlhoots]

2 minutes ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

can you show him the video and ask him about what theyre talking about

I'm seeing him on Sept. 9 playing with Emmet Cohen. I'll try to ask him. No guarantees. After all he's 87 now.

[Gheorghe]

5 hours ago, jazzbo said:

Photo by / © Shigeru Uchiyama

Hank Mobley, 1985
 

1985 ? He died a year later and looks quite well here. You wouldn´t expect that one year later he was dead. 

[bertrand]

Marc Myers is suggesting on his blog that this is the version of Summertime that is circulating, but that one is 17 minutes long. The date I have for that session is 3/10/68. Myers gives a date of 3/8/68 for the video. He also only knows about the 4 tracks on the Blue Bossa CD.

Edited September 1, 2022 by bertrand

[Dan Gould]

18 minutes ago, bertrand said:

Marc Myers is suggesting on his blog that this is the version of Summertime that is circulating, but that one is 17 minutes long. The date I have for that session is 3/10/68. Myers gives a date of 3/8/68 for the video. He also only knows about the 4 tracks on the Blue Bossa CD.

I emailed Marc and showed him why we shouldn't connect this vid to the source of the Blue Bossa CD tracks. He is editing the blog.

[bertrand]

I guess he did not read my Facebook comment. Where did he get March 8th?

So if it is from a different gig on a different day then there could be more video...

[JSngry]

If it's all from one TV show and they have the entire broadcast, what I guess I would ask is how long is the entire show? Did they do does in clean 30-60-etc blocks. or were they more open-ended about it?

Trying to get a feel for the likelihood of there being more footage and/or more episodes. 

[Dan Gould]

19 minutes ago, JSngry said:

If it's all from one TV show and they have the entire broadcast, what I guess I would ask is how long is the entire show? Did they do does in clean 30-60-etc blocks. or were they more open-ended about it?

Trying to get a feel for the likelihood of there being more footage and/or more episodes. 

I am told episodes were both jazz and rock-focused.

They also varied in time, with some being 30 minutes and others being longer.

I think my theory is best and most likely for the "more footage" hope:  They recorded a whole set and possibly used other tunes in other broadcasts. 

[JSngry]

That would be great!

[Dan Gould]

My friend from Ukraine just sent me confirmation that he received from a Danish TV researcher: No more Hank Mobley exists on video.

He also provided the official description of the episode of JazzBeat it came from (via Google Translate):

 

Sent 1st time: 22-04-1968

[Description:] The Jazzbeat editors visit Jazzhus Montmartre in St. Regnegade, Copenhagen, where the South African pianist Dollar Brand ( Abdullah Ibrahim ) plays his own composition; restaurateur Herluf Kamp-Larsen tells a little about the jazz house, and American tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley plays Gershwin's 'Summertime' accompanied by pianist Kenny Drew, bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Al Tootie Heath

[Cast:] Beefeaters; Hans Mobley, tenor saxophonist