1955 · Album
The Max Roach Quartet featuring Hank Mobley
Recorded January 13, 1957 · Blue Note · Produced by Not specified in source material
Swinging Hard With Jackson and Silver
Mobley trades solos with Jackson over a rhythm section that never lets up, just pure swing.
The album you're holding is Hank Mobley and His All Stars (1957), and it's a straightforward blowing session built on real chemistry. Mobley leads a quintet that includes vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and the rhythm section comes straight from Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers — Horace Silver on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Art Blakey on drums. This isn't a concept album or a carefully arranged suite. It's five musicians in a room, and the focus is on what happens when they play together.
What makes this record work is the sheer forward momentum. Silver's playing is insistent and swinging, driving everything forward without ever sounding rushed. Watkins keeps the bass lines moving underneath, Blakey's drumming is busy but never fussy, and Mobley and Jackson trade solos with the kind of ease that comes from players who know exactly what they're doing. Mobley's tenor saxophone has a warm, direct tone — he doesn't overplay or search for flashiness. He states his ideas cleanly and lets them breathe. Jackson's vibes add something different: a cooler, more detached texture that plays beautifully against Mobley's earthier sound.
This is a solid session from early in Mobley's recording career, and it shows why he was valued as a reliable, swinging sideman and bandleader. It's not revolutionary, and it doesn't need to be. If you want to hear what mid-1950s hard bop sounds like when all the pieces fit together, this delivers. The rhythm section does exactly what a rhythm section should do — it makes the horn players sound good.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by Hank Mobley
All 41 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
