Hank Mobley (Eastman, Georgia, July 7, 1930 - May 30, Philadelphia, 1986) was an American jazzsaxophonist and composer -of hard bop and soul jazz.
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Biography[Edit][]
Henry "Hank" Mobley was born in Eastman, Georgia and grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In his youth he began teaching himself to play the piano, but at the age of 16 he switched to the saxophone and started to play professionally soon after. In 1949 he got a job at the R & Bband Paul Gayten 's for which he also worked as a composer.In 1951 he left this group and went on to play in a night club in Newark where he played with pianist Walter Davis, Jr. and some of the top jazz players of that time includingMax Roach , who accompanied them both engaged. They took together in 1953 a session on.
In 1954, he played with Dizzy Gillespie, but in september of that year he went to the Group of Horace Silver, the later Jazz Messengers. Their first album for Blue Note,Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers was a milestone in the development of the hard bop. In 1955 he took on his first session as a leader for Blue Note by a private group, The Hank Mobley Quartet. When the Jazz Messengers in 1956 parted ways for a while at Horace Silver, Mobley remained but he worked from then on mainly as a leader of various formations with which he took up much for Blue Note. He also composed many songs. He took 25 albums for Blue Note between 1955 and 1970, including Roll Call and Soul Station (1960). The Jazz Resource Soul Station is considered his best, and ranked among the 25 best jazz albums of all time. He is accompanied by Art Blakey, Wynton Kellyand Paul Chambers . [1] he is also heard on a lot of other plates of the label; especially with trumpeter Lee Morgan.
In the 1960s he worked mainly as frontman, although he was replaced in 1961 by John Coltrane in the quintet of Miles Davis. But the tensions not between them and Mobley went away at Davis in 1962.
Mobley hit to the drugs and disappeared from the scene for a while thereby twice; a first time when he was arrested a second time in 1958 and in 1964.
At the end of the 1960s he spent a long time in Europe. In Paris he took the album The Flip (1969). Thinking of Home (1970), featuring pianist Cedar Walton, was his last recording for Blue Note. He then formed a group with Cedar Walton with which they the album Breakthrough! (1972) shots. Afterwards he got lung problems that prevent playing as good as him at all. He toured quite a few times in 1985 and 1986 with Duke Jordan, but a few months later he died of a pneumonia.
Discography (selection)[Edit][]
As a leader[Edit][]
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As a sideman[Edit][]
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