Hank Mobley
The Turnaround

Despite many having spent intelligence and sensitivity, Hank Mobley has still not received the posthumous justice he deserves. Leonard Feather - a critic who needs no introduction - called him the "middleweight champion of the tenor sax", referring to an intermediate category between the "heavyweights" like Coltrane, Rollins & company, and the "lightweights" dedicated to a melodic and refined taste like Lester Young or Stan Getz.

But this "definition" quickly came to be considered a "judgment", not particularly favorable, moreover. Indeed, it was not easy at all for a saxophonist to navigate the jazz scene in the second half of the 1950s, when those giants were in full artistic bloom (aside from Lester Young/Pres) that still today excite and influence music and musicians. The series of masterpieces recorded in those years is such as to discourage anyone (for example: "Saxophone Colossus" 1956 - "Blue Train" 1957 - "Freedom Suite" 1958 - "Kind of Blue" 1959 - "Giant Steps" 1960, etc., etc.). And soon Wayne Shorter's talent would emerge strongly...

But Hank had courage to spare, and rare qualities: humility, notable technique, a warm and sinuous tone, melodic taste, and an excellent compositional vein.

Of course, he was not destined to change the history of the saxophone, he was against the historical moment, but despite the high risk of going unnoticed, he did enough to become a memorable musician. After having spent a period of high apprenticeship in the Jazz Messengers during the Horace Silver era, he also had the (mis)fortune to momentarily replace Coltrane in Miles Davis's quintet, just when John was beginning to reap broader acclaim. And the comparisons, seen in this light, were all too easy and equally unfair.
Hank is not an improviser of streams of notes, of daring arpeggios, of spectacular harmonic substitutions. But Hank, too, is a true musician, a saxophonist with a big soul, who wins you over on the second listen, when you realize he is playing relaxed and almost whispering, with delicate rhythmic nuances, with embellishments of notes that conceal an improvisational wisdom now acquired.

In fact, Blue Note did not let him get away and recorded almost thirty titles, in addition to those as a sideman. The ones from the early '60s (Soul Station, Roll Call, Workout) are notable, even if steeped in more conventional hard-bop, and his sound still shows the muscle of Coltrane's influence. The work I have chosen "for you" belongs to the mid-1960s, when Hank reached his splendid maturity, and is part of a confused series of recording sessions, fragmented across various CDs (I confess I have yet to understand by what criterion, but so be it...): this, "Straight, No Filter" and "A Caddy for Daddy". By the way, my copy of "The Turnaround" from the much-missed "Blue Note Magazine" has a different tracklist than the one I find indicated on various CD sales sites on the internet... but it doesn't matter, you'll still land on your feet.

The supporting players are simply pieces of Jazz history, and moreover, very inspired (everyone, please stand up): Paul Chambers on double bass, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Billy Higgins on drums, and Barry Harris on piano. There's enough there to sit and enjoy the music. The music, the jazz contained in this album, is a pure gem of creativity, expressiveness, emotion, joy. A poignant ballad like "My Sin", where Hank's desolate but also stubborn sax tells his personal love story, human like all, which every night returns to mind as vivid as ever. A theme that descends the stairs of the soul, one step at a time, like the chords whispered by Harris's piano and guided by Higgins's brushes.
Perhaps you would like a more objective description, but I have lived this music too much, and life resembles too much what Mobley has recorded, that I am convinced you will understand me. "3rd Time Around" and "Pat n' Chat" possess a Mozartian grace, balanced between joy and sadness, where the rhythmic imagination of the drum breaks is pure light, following themes that smell of hope, and solos that sing beauty in every form.

In whatever album you find the tracks of these sessions, you will find a reason for comfort, a discreet and precious companion for every moment of life, and a friend who recalls the most beautiful moments, or how the most difficult ones have passed.