For German readers: some thoughts and notes and quotes on the music I'm listening - to be found
on my new blog:
ubus-notizen.blogspot.com

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Monday, August 10, 2009

Hank Mobley - Copenhagen 1968

Not much posting activity of late - sorry. I just don't feel like posting more often, and there were plenty of spam comments to delete as well...

Here's something really special to make up for the lack of new music for a while - one of the two Hank Mobley live recordings that have found their way to my place (the other one, a short radio recording with Johnny Griffin, was posted over on dime a few months ago, I'll bring it over here as well later).

Here's what Simon Spillet had to say:

Of Mobley's European recordings these are by far the most revealing, not least as rare examples of Hank really stretching out. As on his engagement in London, he opted for playing mostly his own themes, each of which receives a lengthy exploration, sometimes three times as long as their audio originals. There is a revisit to 'Workout', initially heard on the eponymously titled album from 1961 (Blue Note BST 84080) and which was all but a feature number for Philly Joe Jones. The Monmartre version finds the less well regarded Heath in the prescribed role and carrying it off with aplomb. 'Third Time Around', with its unique stop-start melody, was first recorded in February 1965 (a version that went unreleased until 1986) but was ultimately included on Mobley's 1966 LP 'A Caddy For Daddy' (Blue Note BST 84230). There is also an attractive look at a then recent Mobley theme 'Up, Over and Out' from the 'Reach Out!' album.

The tapes, it has to be admitted, are fairly low-fi, but Mobley's committed playing shines through nevertheless, as do his intermittent verbal reproofs to his accompanists on 'Third Time Around', who seem tethered by the alternating rhythmns rather than inspired by them. Also heard are Mobley's covers of Kenny Dorham's 'Blue Bossa', Sonny Rollins 'Airegin', Monk's 'Rhythmn-a-Ning' and 'Blue Monk' and, as the solitary ballad, a gorgeous return to the standard 'Alone Together', which Mobley had described as one of his favourite themes when he recorded it on the Jazz Messengers Cafe Bohemia session in November 1955 (Blue Note BLP 1507). As the Monmartre had its own recording facilities (albums by Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon and Don Byas are just some of those taped at the club during this period) one can imagine that somewhere better quality source tapes of these Mobley sets exist and that one day they will be remastered and issued. They are certainly worthy of issue, containing as they do prime examples of the new directions that Hank pursued late in his career.


Read the whole article here.



Hank Mobley Quartet
Copenhagen (Denmark), Monmartre Jazzhus
March 1968


Hank Mobley - tenor saxophone
Kenny Drew - piano
NHOP - bass
Albert "Tootie" Heath - drums

CD1/67:40
1. Rhythm-a-Ning (Thelonious Monk) 3:16
2. The Vamp (Hank Mobley) 20:36
3. Alone Together (Schwartz-Dietz) 6:58
4. Blue Bossa (Kenny Dorham) 16:15
5. Blue Monk (Thelonious Monk) / The Theme (Miles Davis) 8:09
6. If I Were a Bell (Frank Loesser) 12:24

CD2/61:29
1. Workout (Hank Mobley) 18:13
2. Up Over and Out (Hank Mobley) 26:59
3. Third Time Around (Hank Mobley) 16:16

CD3/37:24
1. unknown (blues) (5:01) [inc]
2. Summertime (Gershwin-Heyward) 17:22
3. Airegin (Sonny Rollins) / The Theme (Miles Davis) 15:00

TT: 167:33

Sound: B+
Source: Soundboard
Lineage: SBD > reel > ? > DAT > .wav via S/PDIF and Midiman Dio 2448
digital soundcard > CoolEdit Pro 2.0 > CD Wave > CDR

Notes: Sound quality varies from good to very good, possibly indicating
compilation from different sources and performances.

12 comments:

ubu said...

FLAC (tagged) + info:

http://rapidshare.com/files/221550529/Hank_Mobley_1968-03_Copenhagen.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/221550687/Hank_Mobley_1968-03_Copenhagen.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/221550672/Hank_Mobley_1968-03_Copenhagen.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/221560683/Hank_Mobley_1968-03_Copenhagen.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/221554607/Hank_Mobley_1968-03_Copenhagen.part5.rar

chayjazz said...

ubu...

thanx so much for this one. I love Hanks playing and you don't see to much Mobley bootlegs.

worldbflat said...

What a treat, thank you for the time and effort to put this up

Unknown said...

Excellent, Mobley's a real treat.
Thanks.

Barak said...

Great! Thanx Ubu!

gaston said...

damned! je croyais posséder TOUS les enregistrements de hank mobley!!! merci.

sasha said...

No room for squares!! Once more you come thru with something special..And we all know this is gonna swing like a motherf******..Many thanks.

hulaboy said...

Thanks, Ubu!

Arcturus said...

sweet! :)

Anonymous said...

can you re up parts 2, 4, and 5? the links are dead

ubu said...

Hu? All files are still there in my account!

Nick said...

Fascinating that there are Mobley recordings from Copenhagen. The server was not reachable, though, for looking up the files. If you read this I sure would appreciate that the files get reloaded. Mobley is actually the greatest. Coltrane is bleating and quite inaccessible and Rollins decided to play the clown from early on. Remains Gordon from this era, but he usually sounds a bit heavy. Today we have Ralph Moore, Pete Christlieb, Ricky Woodard, Gary Foster, Scott Hamilton, Harry Allen, Grant Stewart who all go on as if avantgarde and fusion never existed. Thank you! I bought eight classical albums and six classical albums from Real Gone Jazz, both for about 13 dollars and I have the gorgeous "At The Jazz Corner of the World" in vinyl from 1960 and a lot of other stuff so I don't feel so bad if I could get these files to share. And don't tell me that Mobley is under appreciated or underrated. Mobley is widely loved. The music business took the wrong track for thirty years, not Mobley. Thanks, Nikolai