Hank Mobley on "Room 608"

[ed. note: updated 11/10/2017 with a reader's thoughtful comment on Mobley and others from this era]
By the 1950's the bebop language had really settled into a conventional syntax that good musicians could leverage in the service of creating beautifully paced, architecturally sound improvisations. Some of the excitement of the earlier (and later) work is missing, but often times during this period the structure of jazz solos is better than that which preceded it. Mobley is prime example of this development. The use of the language itself is predictable, but the artistic results are often sublime. To this day, I have never heard a better solo on "Nica's Dream" than Mobley's on the Art Blakey record on which the composition premiered, followed by an equally exquisite Donald Byrd solo. Transparent playing that becomes utterly understandable on the written page, yet perfect. It is the same feeling I get looking at a Mozart Sonata: Everything is so simple, even childishly so at times...and then you try to write something as good, and then the profundity of it all just overwhelms. -- Josh Aguiar, October 2017

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Continuing in the bebop/hard bop vein, here's a transcription of Hank Mobley's solo over the classic Horace Silver pseudo-rhythm changes tune, "Room 608," from the record Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers (1955). To be honest, I've never been a huge fan of Hank Mobley's playing—to me, his tenor sound is somewhat stuffy and his recorded material isn't particularly attention-grabbing in comparison to that of other major bebop tenor saxophonists in the '50s and '60s—but, he can really play some relaxed, middle-of-the-road bebop. Here's the transcription:


The descending motif that Mobley plays over the bridge (mm. 18-21) really stands out to me; an excellent example of a logical, self-contained 4-bar phrase. Also, his "horizontal" playing over the A sections is great (mm. 26-30; 58-61) — the use of mostly diatonic melodic shapes is straight out of Lester Young.



   
Interestingly, the I - bII phrase that Mobley plays in mm. 42-3 is played almost note-for-note in Sonny Rollins's solo on "Come, Gone" from Way Out West.

Comments

  1. Cool site. I've transcribed this one before. At the end of the 1st bridge I hear the last eighth note of bar 23 as an A natural and the last eight note of bar 24 as an A flat.

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  2. I've heard Hank use several variations on the I- IIb phrase from 42-43 that you mention in his playing. There is a double time section in the Bb blues "Soft winds" from Art Blakey at Cafe Bohemia where he uses a similar line in the first 2 bars except he goes up to I-IIb-II-IIIb. Then he follows it up with 2 bars of essentially chromatic playing.

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  3. By the 1950's the bebop language had really settled into a conventional syntax that good musicians could leverage in the service of creating beautifully paced, architecturally sound improvisations. Some of the excitement of the earlier (and later) work is missing, but often times during this period the structure of jazz solos is better than that which preceded it. Mobley is prime example of this development. The use of the language itself is predictable, but the artistic results are often sublime. To this day, I have never heard a better solo on "Nica's Dream" than Mobley's on the Art Blakey record on which the composition premiered, followed by an equally exquisite Donald Byrd solo. Transparent playing that becomes utterly understandable on the written page, yet perfect. It is the same feeling I get looking at a Mozart Sonata: Everything is so simple, even childishly so at times...and then you try to write something as good, and then the profundity of it all just overwhelms.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Josh, thank you for this elegant, insightful comment on the transparent perfection of these hard bop improvisations. I think the comparison to Mozart is very apt, and my opinion of Mobley has definitely evolved since writing this post (over five years ago now, to my surprise). If you don't mind, I'll feature your comment in the body of this post; I think others will find it worth reading in case they don't read the comments.

      Delete
  4. Hi Kevin,

    I never realized until now that you had responded - thanks for including my comment! And thanks for your beautiful playing and for maintaining this fantastic site. Best wishes, josh

    ReplyDelete

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