Customer Reviews

Hank Mobley & His All Stars (24bt)

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There's no way you can go wrong with anything Mobley recorded, whether his own date or another leader's, between 1954 and 1963, especially if you agree with me that his melodic vocabulary is inexhaustible and that his sound is rich, complex, and inimitable, not requiring any "spiking" on the engineer's part or forced blowing on Hank's. I can think of at least ten Mobley dates I'd put ahead of this 1957 session, which is nevertheless a noteworthy document of Mobley's development as a composer and soloist as well as a cooking session with four other peerless musicians: Milt Jackson, Horace Silver, Doug Watkins, and Art Blakey.

The most interesting tunes are the last two (tracks 4 and 5)--the first ("Lower Stratosphere") an extended blues, and the second ("Mobley's Musings") a soulful ballad.

Partly because of all vibraharpists' preference at this time for rapidly-spinning rotators and because of Van Gelder's customary one-dimensional balancing of the instruments, the sound of Bags' vibes in conjunction with Mobley's horn is not as warm and inviting as one might expect (Milt sounds much better with Coltrane on the Atlantic recording made shortly after this session).

Finally, it would seem to make more sense to pick up the currently less expensive Blue Note original than this more expensive, recent Japanese reissue.