Hank Mobley

Henry "Hank" Mobley (July 7, 1930 – May 30, 1986) was an American hard bop and soul jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. Mobley was described by Leonard Feather as the "middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone", a metaphor used to describe his tone, that was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane 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, but was raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 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. 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 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''. He later appeared on two Roach sessions recorded in 1957 and 1958 for EmArcy records.

Shortly after working with Roach, he began working regularly with another drummer and bandleader, Art Blakey. He and Blakey took part in one of the earliest hard bop sessions, alongside pianist Horace Silver, bassist Doug Watkins and trumpeter Kenny Dorham. The results of these sessions were released as '' Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers''. 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''. Mobley used the Jazz Messengers' rhythm section as his backing band for his 1955 Blue Note Records debut, '' Hank Mobley Quartet''. When the Silver/Watkins/Blakey version of The Jazz Messengers split up in 1956, Mobley continued working with Silver for a short time, appearing on ''Silver's Blue'', '' 6 Pieces of Silver'', and '' The Stylings of Silver''. Mobley worked for brief periods with Blakey a few years later, rejoining the drummer's band (which was called Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers, and was no longer a collective) in the spring and summer of 1959. He also hired Blakey to play on two of his Blue Note solo albums recorded in 1960.

1956-1970: Blue Note 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, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Kenny Dorham, Jackie McLean, Pepper Adams, Milt Jackson, Sonny Clark, Bobby Timmons, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones, among others. Mobley's former Messengers rhythm section of Silver, Watkins, and Blakey backed him on '' Hank Mobley and His All Stars'' and ''Hank Mobley Quintet''.
In 1958, Mobley was a sideman on Max Roach's album ''The Max Roach 4 Plays Charlie Parker

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases