Henry "Hank" Mobley (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986) was an American
hard bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...
and
soul jazz
Soul jazz or funky jazz is a subgenre of jazz that incorporates strong influences from hard bop, blues, soul, gospel and rhythm and blues. Soul jazz is often characterized by organ trios featuring the Hammond organ and small combos including ten ...
tenor saxophonist
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while t ...
and composer.
Mobley was described by
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.
Biography
Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...
as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone",
a metaphor used to describe his tone, that was neither as aggressive as
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...
nor as mellow as Lester Young, and his style that was laid-back, subtle and melodic, especially in contrast with players like Coltrane and
Sonny Rollins. The critic Stacia Proefrock claimed him "one of the most underrated musicians of the bop era." Mobley's compositions included "Double Exposure," "Soul Station", and "Dig Dis," among others.
Early life and education
Mobley was born in
Eastman, Georgia
Eastman is a city in Dodge County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,962 at the 2010 census. Named after one of the founders who contributed a site and paid for the county courthouse, the city was established in 1871, and is the county ...
, but was raised in
, near Newark. He described himself as coming from a musical family and spoke of his uncle playing in a jazz band. As a child, Mobley played piano.
When he was 16, an illness kept him in the house for several months. His grandmother thought of buying a saxophone to help him occupy his time, and it was then that Mobley began to play. He tried to enter a music school in Newark, but could not, since he was not a resident, so he instead studied music through books at home.
Career
1949-1956: Early career and Jazz Messengers Years
At 19, he started to play with local bands and, months later, worked for the first time with musicians like
Dizzy Gillespie and
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz Jazz drumming, drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in h ...
. Roach introduced Mobley to the New York jazz scene in 1951, and over the next two years the latter began composing and recording tunes of his own.
He was a member of the
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...
Orchestra and multiple
R&B bands during this period.
When Parker heard Mobley's playing, he advised the young musician to take more influence from blues music.
In April of 1953, he was hired by Max Roach to play on the album released as ''
The Max Roach Quartet featuring Hank Mobley
''The Max Roach Quartet featuring Hank Mobley'' was the debut album by American jazz drummer Max Roach featuring tracks recorded in 1953 and first released on the Debut Records, Debut label as a 10-inch LP.Art Blakey
Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s.
Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...
. He and Blakey took part in one of the earliest
hard bop
Hard bop is a subgenre of jazz that is an extension of bebop (or "bop") music. Journalists and record companies began using the term in the mid-1950s to describe a new current within jazz that incorporated influences from rhythm and blues, gospe ...
sessions, alongside pianist
Horace Silver
Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.
After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sc ...
, bassist
Doug Watkins
Douglas Watkins (March 2, 1934 – February 5, 1962) was an American jazz double bassist. He was best known for being an accompanist to various hard bop artists in the Detroit area, including Donald Byrd and Jackie McLean.
Biography
Watkins ...
and trumpeter
Kenny Dorham. The results of these sessions were released as ''
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers
''Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers'' is a 1956 repackage of 1955 10” LPs by jazz pianist Horace Silver with drummer Art Blakey and featuring Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and Doug Watkins on bass. By the time ...
''. At this point, the band was a collective, sometimes appearing and recording under the names of either Silver or Blakey. Mobley was also in The Jazz Messengers for the recording of the live album ''
At the Cafe Bohemia'', and he appeared on the Columbia Records studio album ''
The Jazz Messengers
The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the o ...
''. Mobley used the Jazz Messengers' rhythm section as his backing band for his 1955 Blue Note Records debut, ''
Hank Mobley Quartet
''Hank Mobley Quartet'' is the debut album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley released on the Blue Note label in 1955 as BLP 5066, a 10" LP. It was recorded on March 27, 1955, and features Mobley, Horace Silver, Doug Watkins and Art Blakey. The alb ...
''. When the Silver/Watkins/Blakey version of
The Jazz Messengers
The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the o ...
split up in 1956, Mobley continued working with Silver for a short time, appearing on ''
Silver's Blue'', ''
6 Pieces of Silver
''6 Pieces of Silver'' is a studio album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label in 1957 featuring performances by Silver with Donald Byrd, Hank Mobley, Doug Watkins and Louis Hayes. The Allmusic review b ...
'', and ''
The Stylings of Silver
''The Stylings of Silver'' is an album by jazz pianist Horace Silver released on the Blue Note label in 1957 featuring performances by Silver with Art Farmer, Hank Mobley, Teddy Kotick, and Louis Hayes.Blue Note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...
years
Mobley recorded steadily during the second half of the 1950s for Blue Note records, a series of albums which featured him with
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.
One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on John Coltrane's '' Blue Train'' (1 ...
,
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop m ...
,
Art Farmer,
Kenny Dorham,
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...
,
Pepper Adams
Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III (October 8, 1930 – September 10, 1986) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 42 pieces, was the leader on eighteen albums spanning 28 years, and participated in 600 sessions as a s ...
,
Milt Jackson
Milton Jackson (January 1, 1923 – October 9, 1999), nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solo ...
,
Sonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.
Early life
Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of Pi ...
,
Bobby Timmons
Robert Henry Timmons (December 19, 1935 – March 1, 1974) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He was a sideman in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for two periods (July 1958 to September 1959; February 1960 to June 1961), between which he wa ...
,
Wynton Kelly
Wynton Charles Kelly (December 2, 1931 – April 12, 1971) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of ...
,
Paul Chambers
Paul Laurence Dunbar Chambers Jr. (April 22, 1935 – January 4, 1969) was an American jazz double bassist. A fixture of rhythm sections during the 1950s and 1960s, he has become one of the most widely-known jazz bassists of the hard bop era. ...
, and
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph "Philly Joe" Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American jazz drummer.
Biography Early career
As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on ''The Kiddie Show'' on the Philadelphia radio station WIP. He wa ...
, among others. Mobley's former Messengers rhythm section of Silver, Watkins, and Blakey backed him on ''
Hank Mobley and His All Stars
''Hank Mobley and His All Stars'' is an album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley, released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label in 1957 as BLP 1544. It was recorded on January 13, 1957, and features Mobley along with the other members of the fir ...
'' and ''
Hank Mobley Quintet
''Hank Mobley Quintet'' is an album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley released on the Blue Note label in 1957 as BLP 1550. It was recorded on March 8, 1957 and features Mobley, trumpeter Art Farmer, bassist Doug Watkins, pianist Horace Silver, and ...
''.
In 1958, Mobley was a sideman on Max Roach's album ''
The Max Roach 4 Plays Charlie Parker
''The Max Roach 4 Plays Charlie Parker'' is an album by American jazz drummer Max Roach featuring tracks associated with Charlie Parker recorded in late 1957 and 1958 and released on the EmArcy label.George Coleman
George Edward Coleman (born March 8, 1935) is an American jazz saxophonist known for his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the 1960s. In 2015, he was named an NEA Jazz Master.
Early life
Coleman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was ...
, and bassists
George Morrow and
Nelson Boyd
Nelson Boyd (February 6, 1928, Camden, New Jersey – October 1985Social security register of deaths.) was an American bebop jazz bassist.
Biography
He was born in Camden, New Jersey, and played in local orchestras in Philadelphia around 1945, an ...
also recorded on the album, which consisted entirely of Parker compositions. In March of 1959, Mobley rejoined the Jazz Messengers. With this edition of The Jazz Messengers, he recorded ''
At the Jazz Corner of the World'' and the studio album first released in 2020 as ''Just Coolin. During this same period, Mobley and Blakey appeared together on a
Sonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.
Early life
Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of Pi ...
recording session that was first released in 1979 as ''
My Conception''. Mobley was with the Jazz Messengers during the
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is an annual American multi-day jazz music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island. Elaine Lorillard established the festival in 1954, and she and husband Louis Lorillard financed it for many years. They hire ...
that summer, but soon after left the band and was replaced by
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...
.
During the 1960s, he worked chiefly as a leader, and continued to record for
Blue Note Records
Blue Note Records is an American jazz record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Capitol Music Group. Established in 1939 by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis, it derived its name from the blue notes of jazz and the blues. Or ...
until 1970. Notable records from this period include ''
Soul Station
''Soul Station'' is an album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley that was released in 1960 by Blue Note Records. It is considered by many critics to be his finest album.
Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio and rooted in the hard bop style, Mobley's ...
'' (1960), generally considered to be his finest recording, and ''
Roll Call
''Roll Call'' is a newspaper and website published in Washington, D.C., United States, when the United States Congress is in session, reporting news of legislative and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill, as well as political coverage of ...
'' (1960). Both of these albums featured Blakey on drums, and they were the final recordings Mobley made with the drummer. In a 2020 review of ''Soul Station'',
The Recording Academy's ''Grammy Awards'' website called the album Mobley's "most rewarding listen despite not breaking the mold." Grammy has also referred to the album as "effortlessly elegant." ''The Guardian'' gave Mobley's four "classic" albums (''
Peckin’ Time'', ''Soul Station'', ''Roll Call'' and ''
Workout
Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness.
It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic s ...
'') five stars noting that "
r once, the word 'classic' is justified." The article referred to his "infinite subtlety" and ability as "an ingenious composer" as justification for this rating.
During this period of his career, he performed with bop and hard bop musicians including
Grant Green
Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Recording prolifically for Blue Note Records as both leader and sideman, Green performed in the hard bop, soul jazz, bebop, and Latin-tinged idioms ...
,
Freddie Hubbard,
Sonny Clark
Conrad Yeatis "Sonny" Clark (July 21, 1931 – January 13, 1963) was an American jazz pianist and composer who mainly worked in the hard bop idiom.
Early life
Clark was born and raised in Herminie, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town east of Pi ...
,
Wynton Kelly
Wynton Charles Kelly (December 2, 1931 – April 12, 1971) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of ...
and
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph "Philly Joe" Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American jazz drummer.
Biography Early career
As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on ''The Kiddie Show'' on the Philadelphia radio station WIP. He wa ...
, and formed a particularly productive partnership with trumpeter
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.
One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on John Coltrane's '' Blue Train'' (1 ...
, having appeared on each other's albums and
Johnny Griffin's ''
A Blowin' Session
''Johnny Griffin Vol. 2'' (also known as ''A Blowin' Session'') is an album by jazz saxophonist Johnny Griffin, recorded in April 1957 and released in September or October of the same year on the Blue Note label. It was reissued in 1999, featuring ...
''. Mobley was briefly a member of the
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
band in 1961,
during the period when Davis was searching for a tenor saxophone player to permanently replace
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...
. Mobley is heard on the album ''
Someday My Prince Will Come
"Someday My Prince Will Come" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated movie ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. It was written by Larry Morey (lyrics) & Frank Churchill (music), and performed by Adriana Caselotti (Snow White's voice in the ...
'' (on two tracks, playing alongside Coltrane), and the live recordings ''
In Person: Live at the Blackhawk'' and ''
At Carnegie Hall''. ''JazzTimes'' noted that around the time he played with Davis, Mobley "retooled his sound" from a lighter to a harder-edged tone.
![Gedenktafel Alfred-Lion-Steg (Schön) Alfred Lion (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Gedenktafel_Alfred-Lion-Steg_%28Sch%C3%B6n%29_Alfred_Lion_%28cropped%29.jpg)
In 1961, Mobley recorded two of his own albums, ''
Workout
Exercise is a body activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness.
It is performed for various reasons, to aid growth and improve strength, develop muscles and the cardiovascular system, hone athletic s ...
'' and ''
Another Workout
''Another Workout'' is an album by jazz tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley recorded during two sessions in 1961. Most of the album was recorded during a session on December 5, 1961, while the final track, "Three Coins in a Fountain," was recorded on ...
'', although ''Another Workout'' was not released until 1985. Both featured a rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, all of whom were in Davis's bands during the late 1950s. The delay of the latter album's release was later called "incomprehensible" by producer
Michael Cuscuna
Michael Cuscuna (born September 20, 1949 in Stamford, Connecticut, United States) is an American jazz record producer and writer. He is the co-founder of Mosaic Records and a discographer of Blue Note Records.
Cuscuna played drums, saxophone and ...
and "astonishing" according to Bob Blumenthal.
The personnel on ''Workout'' included guitarist
Grant Green
Grant Green (June 6, 1935 – January 31, 1979) was an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Recording prolifically for Blue Note Records as both leader and sideman, Green performed in the hard bop, soul jazz, bebop, and Latin-tinged idioms ...
, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, while ''Another Workout'' featured the same personnel, excluding Green.
Mobley rehearsed extensively before his 1960s Blue Note recordings, typically twice during the week preceding a Saturday studio session, with Blue Note paying for the rehearsals and recordings.
Alfred Lion, co-producer of the label, would frequently direct the band's tempo or critique studio takes until he was pleased with them.
Mobley recorded ''
No Room for Squares
''No Room for Squares'' is an album by jazz tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley recorded on March 7 & October 2, 1963 and released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label. It features performances by Mobley, trumpeters Lee Morgan and Donald Byrd, pian ...
'' in 1964, with ''
DownBeat'' remarking that on the album Mobley "conveyed quiet authority," and followed a year later with ''
A Caddy for Daddy''.
Mobley, Lee Morgan, and soul jazz pianist
Harold Mabern
Harold Mabern Jr. (March 20, 1936 – September 17, 2019) was an American jazz pianist and composer, principally in the hard bop, post-bop, and soul jazz fields.Feather, Leonard; Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. p. 4 ...
recorded another mid-60s album, ''
Dippin'
''Dippin is an album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label in 1966. It is the second of nine Blue Note sessions to feature Mobley alongside Lee Morgan during the trumpeter's second stint with the label. ...
'', in one day.
According to Samuel Chell, ''No Room for Squares'' was "the first session on which
obleywould begin to sacrifice lyric inspiration and subtlety of phrasing to a harder sound and stiffer rhythmic approach."
In 1964, Mobley was again imprisoned for possession of
narcotics
The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
. While in prison Mobley wrote songs that were later recorded for the album ''
A Slice of the Top''. The album was recorded in 1966 but was not released until 1979.
The popularity of Mobley's albums decreased during the mid-1960s, though he continued to record regularly this period. Three critically acclaimed albums recorded during the mid- to late-60s include ''A Caddy for Daddy'', ''
Hi Voltage
''Hi Voltage'' is an album by jazz tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley recorded on October 9, 1967 and released on the Blue Note label the following year. '', and ''
The Flip''.
Apart from his album ''
Reach Out!'', also recorded in the late 60s, Mobley avoided progressive jazz and the electric sound popular with jazz musicians during this period.
1970-1986: Retirement
One of Mobley's final albums, titled ''
Breakthrough!'', was recorded in 1972 with baritone saxophonist
Charles Davis, pianist
Cedar Walton, bassist
Sam Jones, and drummer
Billy Higgins
Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.
Biography
Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, be ...
.
Scott Yanow noted that Mobley's career was about to "eclipse" following this record date.
In 1973, shortly before the end of his career, he began a musical collaboration with
Muhal Richard Abrams
Muhal Richard Abrams (born Richard Lewis Abrams; September 19, 1930 – October 29, 2017) was an American educator, administrator, composer, arranger, clarinetist, cellist, and jazz pianist in the free jazz medium. He recorded and toured the Uni ...
, although the two never recorded together.
Following Mobley's semi-retirement, pianist
Tete Montoliu
Vicenç Montoliu i Massana, better known as Tete Montoliu (28 March 1933 – 24 August 1997) was a Spanish jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. Born blind, he learnt braille music at age seven. His styles varied from hard bop, through afro-Cuban, ...
and Mobley recorded one track together on the 1980 album ''
I Wanna Talk About You'', the jazz standard "
Autumn Leaves."
In 1979, in an interview with John Litweiler, Mobley noted, "It’s hard for me to think of what could be and what should have been."
Mobley gave a speech at the Blue Note Town Hall concert in 1985.
Personal life
Mobley became addicted to
heroin
Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...
in the late 1950s and in 1958 was imprisoned.
He continued to struggle with his drug addiction during the 1960s.
A longtime smoker, Mobley was forced to retire in the mid-1970s, due to lung problems.
He also had problems with
homelessness
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
in his later years and struggled to stay in touch with his fellow musicians.
He worked two engagements at the Angry Squire in New York City November 22 and 23, 1985, and January 11, 1986, in a quartet with
Duke Jordan
Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan (April 1, 1922 – August 8, 2006) was an American jazz pianist.
Biography
Jordan was born in New York and raised in Brooklyn where he attended Boys High School. An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regul ...
and guest singer Lodi Carr, a few months before his death.
He died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
in 1986, having also suffered from lung cancer.
Legacy
Jazz radio host
Bob Perkins described Mobley's style as "round, throaty, and distinctive," noting that despite "lukewarm appraisals of his artistry by critics, Hank Mobley overcame some major stumbling blocks to acquire a place in the history of jazz music."
In 2020,
Mosaic Records released an 8-disc compilation of Mobley's Blue Note recordings. ''
GQ'' noted that seven of Mobley's twelve Blue Note albums in this era were quickly slated for release, with the others "chopped up and mixed and matched—which denied Mobley his proper place in the music of the time and left him deeply frustrated," a concern that was set aside by the new compilation.
Mobley himself was dismayed by the record label's tendency to pressure him into studio sessions, only to decide not to release the recorded music.
For instance, Mobley's album ''Poppin was recorded in 1957 and released 23 years later.
''
The Spectator
''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world.
It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...
'' lamented that "an unfortunate side effect of 20th century Modernism is that
istenabilitydoesn’t put you in the history books," referencing Mobley's style and the lack of attention paid to his work, as compared to
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist
The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...
and
Sonny Rollins. According to fellow saxophonist
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz (born September 26, 1940) is an American jazz saxophonist. He has won two Grammy Awards.
Biography
Bartz studied at the Juilliard School. In the early 1960s, he performed with Eric Dolphy and McCoy Tyner in Charles Mingus' Jazz Wor ...
, the fact his compositions were not organized with one publishing company made profiting from them difficult.
In November 2020, the
Van Gelder Studio's first livestream video was a tribute to Mobley. In 2022, saxophonist
Art Themen purchased a saxophone that had previously been owned by
Ronnie Scott
Ronnie may refer to:
* Ronnie (name), a unisex pet name and given name
* "Ronnie" (Four Seasons song), a song by Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe
*"Ronnie," a song from the Metallica album '' Load''
*Ronnie Brunswijkstadion, an association football stadiu ...
and before him, Mobley. Grammy's article "Let Me Play The Answers: 8 Jazz Artists Honoring Black Geniuses" cited Mobley as an influence on jazz trumpeter Bruce Harris, and Art Blakey's contribution to ''Soul Station'' as, metaphorically, the "hottest part of the flame" according to former Jazz Messengers drummer
Ralph Peterson, Jr.
Ralph Peterson Jr. (May 20, 1962 – March 1, 2021) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.
Early life
Four of Peterson's uncles and his grandfather were drummers. Peterson himself began on percussion at age three. He was raised in Pleasan ...
Discography
References
Additional reading
*
External links
*
*
*Steve Huey
"Artist Biography" AllMusic.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mobley, Hank
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