Tribute to Hank Mobley:
Henry Mobley, as Hank is officially called, was a tenor saxophonist. He is known as the proverbial “middleweight tenor saxophone champion” of his time, as his tone was less aggressive than Coltrane’s, but more pronounced than the soft tonal approach of Lester Young. At the beginning of his career, Mobley worked a lot with Dizzie Gillespie, Max Roach, and Art Blakey, and later with Horace Silver in the Jazz Messengers. During his Hardbop period, he played a lot with, among others, Freddie Hubbard. Later, he also had a brief period playing with Miles Davis at a time when Miles was looking for a replacement for John Coltrane. Notably, much of Mobley’s own work was not released or picked up. Analyses suggest that Mobley’s very pleasant mainstream tone was considered less commercially interesting by record companies at the time. He therefore became primarily known as a sideman.
This is not fair and only in a later stage, his genius was recognized and discovered. At that time, tribute concerts were also dedicated to him by fellow musicians.
This tribute is no different from the earlier ones and aims to make Hank Mobley’s musicality and genius known and spread to a wider audience.