Hank Mobley – Hank Mobley Quintet – Blue Note RVG series 50999-2-15388-2-7 – March 1957 – Mono,57:22 ****1/2:
(Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Art Farmer, trumpet: Horace Silver, piano; Doug Watkins, bass; Art Blakey, drums)
Long largely unavailable outside of Japan or to those lucky enough to own Mosaic Records’ box set titled “Complete Blue Note 1950s Sessions”, collectors of Hank Mobley’s 1950s era Blue Note recordings had to do with parting of significant greenbacks to get their hands on Mobley’s March 1957 Quintet session. There is cause for rejoicing now as Blue Note in their RVG remastered series has just released this classic session.
Mobley was involved with the first edition of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers as well as the then current grouping of Horace Silver’s Quintet. Both Silver and Blakey return the favor by providing 2/3 of the rhythm section of “Quintet.” This RVG is manna from heaven for Mobley fans as it provides primo Mobley material-Hank composed all the selections. Blue Note has sweetened the pot by adding alternate takes of Funk In Deep Freeze, and Wham and They’re Off. Funk in Deep Freeze is so sweet as Mobley blows in his inimitable fashion and Silver’s solo is perfect accompaniment. Rudy Van Gelder, to be upfront in the mix, has remastered Doug Watkins’s bass solo superbly. This track is among the most-covered Mobley compositions over the years.
Wham and They’re Off is a great vehicle for Art Farmer to show his hard bop chops and he takes the tune out in an aggressive fashion. Silver’s solo shows his command of bop chords, and master Blakey gets in his licks as well. The atmospheric Fin De L’Affaire would be at home in a 50s French soundtrack. Mobley’s laconic blues drenched solo is matched by Farmer’s muted trumpet. Tres bien!
Stella-Wise brings us back to earlier 50s bop and Hank and Blakey are off on a tear until Farmer takes over and brings to mind Lee Morgan who was just coming onto the scene at this time period. As mentioned alternate takes of the opening two tracks are nice to compare to the album’s master tracks as they give an indication of Alfred Lion’s taste (and likely difficulty) in choosing which tracks to choose as master takes. With musicians of this quality, Lion had his work cut out for him as he could have gone either way.
Van Gelder’s remastering here is up to modern standards. There have been occasional criticisms of Rudy on some of the RVG series of over emphasizing treble. I do not find that issue here. On Quintet, I found the sonics to be analogue warm and the bass and drum mix to be just right for my hard bop-loving ears.
TrackList: Funk in Deep Freeze, Wham and They’re Off, Fin De L’Affaire, Startin’ From Scratch, Stella-wise, Base on Balls, and alternate takes of Funk in Deep Freeze and Wham and They’re Off
-Jeff Krow
