[Today: Hank Mobley finds the middle ground to greatness...]
Hank Mobley is the most underappreciated performer in the history of Jazz. His swinging, hard bop style placed him in a stylistic no-man’s land between the frenetic compositions of John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins on one hand, and the cool, mellow sounds of Stan Getz and Paul Desmond on the other. For this, noted critic Leonard Feather called him “the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone” – a title that did little to enhance his visibility or credentials.
Mobley’s early 60′s output for Blue Note is a treasure trove of great albums that are all a long day’s drive from being household names. Records like Peckin’ Time, Soul Station, Roll Call, and No Room For Squares (to name but a few) mined endless gold from that wide area between balladry and blistering. Each and every one of these albums can be called a masterpiece with an entirely straight face.
The Turnaround features the Mobley extracting a wide range of emotions from his instrument – all of them swinging. The album consists of two separate sessions – one recorded in 1963, the other in 1965, the year this was released. In that two year span, Mobley had moved to a bluesier sound. So in effect this record features two different Mobleys, and provides clear snapshots of both where his sound had been, and where it was headed. Unfortunately for him, the record buying public didn’t care much either way.
Listen: The Turnaround
Tags: Hank Mobley, Jazz, The Turnaround
14 August 2007 at 6:51 am |
“This track is funkier than a fat man’s fart.”
-Arlo Chingaderas
7 August 2008 at 6:14 pm |
[...] period that saw a considerable number of classic Blue Note releases, including Hank Mobley’s The Turnaround, Dexter Gordon’s Our Man In Paris, and Joe Henderson’s Page One, to scrape but the tip [...]