Sideman Blues
Luckman Jazz Orchestra celebrates late jazz great Hank Mobley
By Bliss 01/19/2012
Longtime sidemen toiling in obscurity may take heart from the current re-evaluation of late tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley’s oeuvre. He was a ubiquitous presence on landmark jazz recordings in the 1950s and ’60s, performing alongside legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey and Horace Silver, but at the time his work was deemed less worthy because he was not as visionary as contemporaries like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins.
Now his melodicism and fluid economy are receiving more favorable appraisals. The Luckman Jazz Orchestra, which celebrated Silver’s musical legacy in September, is preparing to salute Mobley with a concert this Saturday.
Sidemen and -women have always had a rough go of it, dependent as they are on band leaders for employment. Yet despite bandleaders’ charisma, what often attracts audiences to the music is the performance and compositional skills of sidemen. Mobley, who was born in Georgia in 1930 and grew up in northern New Jersey, had the good fortune to come of musical age at a time when the New York jazz scene was cooking with players who became the architects of hard bop. By 1954 he was playing in Silver’s band, which eventually morphed into the trailblazing Jazz Messengers behind Blakey. In his 2006 autobiography “Let’s Get to the Nitty Gritty,” Silver opined that Mobley and trumpeter Kenny Dorham were “two of the most underrated musicians in jazz. … They were both giants. They sure played some slick shit when they improvised.”
Mobley was stepping up to lead his own combos by 1955, releasing “Hank Mobley Quartet” on the prestigious Blue Note label, with Silver manning the keys and Blakey on drums. He continued to work as a sideman with Silver while releasing a handful of his own sessions for Blue Note, Prestige and Savoy before serving time on drug charges in 1958. Upon re-entering civilian life, he returned to the Jazz Messengers fold behind Blakey before recording, with Blakey, pianist Wynton Kelly and bassist Paul Chambers, what remains his best known work: “Soul Station,” a smooth-grooving triumph. Released on Blue Note in 1960, it stands as Mobley’s own “Kind of Blue” and, like 1963’s “No Room for Squares” and 1965’s “A Caddy for Daddy,” shines as the quintessence of cool.
A promising collaboration with Miles Davis turned sour in 1961, but Mobley continued to record his own material, stretching out to embrace funk and soul rhythms within his elegant jazz framework. But debilitating drug problems and consequent bouts with the law took a toll on his career and, eventually, his health. 1972’s “Breakthrough,” with pianist Cedar Walton, was his last serious recording; he retired to Philadelphia in 1975, where he died in 1986.
Unlike many other recordings from the ’60s, Mobley’s classic sessions don’t sound dated. They may not be revelatory, but they remain beautifully instructive guides in the arts of melody, harmony and intraband listening — an enduring gift to fellow artists and music lovers.
KKJZ presents the Luckman Jazz Orchestra’s tribute to Hank Mobley at 8 p.m. Saturday at Cal State LA’s Harriet and Charles Luckman Fine Arts Complex, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles; $25-$35. Tickets/info: (323) 323-343-6600.
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