Someone below suggested a thread on this subject, so I thought, why not? It's likely my opinion will not reflect the views of a majority of jazz fans, especially those who listen a lot to jazz from the period when he was active, but, if it turns out to be somewhat controversial, so much the better.
I'll start by conceding that Mobley was obviously highly regarded by many front line leaders, including people like Art Blakey, Horace Silver and virtually every other musician who led a session for the Blue Note-and Prestige to a lesser extent-label in the 1950s and 1960s. (All of them by the way far more musically sophisticated than this writer.)
That said, I think he was overrated then and continues to be as witnessed by the flood of reissues of his own recordings as a leader. I've never found his work especially challenging compared to a number of contemporaneous saxophone players, particularly John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Jackie McLean, Sam Rivers and Sonny Rollins.
Clearly not everyone has to be a genius or an innovator to produce enjoyable music and for me therein lies the problem with Mobley's outsized reputation and popularity. After my comments thus far it may be surprising for me to say that I find his work mostly enjoyable and quite listenable...but for me it's not much more than that. I'm also bothered by the sameness of so much of his output. That probably doesn't distinguish him from other fairly popular players of his era-Tina Brooks or Junior Cook anyone?-but as far as I can tell, none of them approach Mobley in popularity or record sales.
Of course, part of this is that Mobley was ubiquitous, both as a sideman and as a leader. I'm not at all certain what explains this. Did he readily fit in on any hard bop session? Was he cooperative and willing to do whatever was required? Did his mere presence enhance sales? Was he simply always available? Or was his music just nice and likeable?
Whatever the reason(s), he was and is much more popular* (or so it seems) than many other deserving players from the hard bop era: Dexter Gordon, George Coleman, Booker Ervin, Charlie Rouse, Joe Henderson, Harold Land, for example.
*Of course, when discussing popularity in a jazz context, we have to be mindful that revenues generated by a big seller can get lost in the petty cash of a label of any size.
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Topic - Hank Mobley...by request - suretyguy 15:59:32 07/22/17 (50)
- Hey, yer dissin' one of my faves. - Rick W 21:21:30 07/22/17 (6)
- RE: Hey, yer dissin' one of my faves. - suretyguy 07:53:19 07/23/17 (0)
- I especially like Hank in - oldmkvi 07:08:54 07/23/17 (2)
- RE: I especially like Hank in - suretyguy 07:34:15 07/23/17 (1)
- 2 winners, for sure! nt - oldmkvi 07:50:02 07/23/17 (0)
- +1... - kuma 23:10:11 07/22/17 (1)
- RE: +1... - fantja 04:14:39 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - GEO 21:09:27 07/22/17 (11)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - Rick W 09:41:51 07/23/17 (8)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - suretyguy 10:51:16 07/23/17 (5)
- Oops. Yep, Blue Note. Re: unreleased recordings...... - Rick W 11:20:21 07/23/17 (4)
- RE: Oops. Yep, Blue Note. Re: unreleased recordings...... - suretyguy 19:01:13 07/23/17 (3)
- Two of the Mobley's I mentioned were released when Liberty owned Blue Note, as were a number of..... - Rick W 22:33:54 07/23/17 (2)
- RE: Two of the Mobley's I mentioned were released when Liberty owned Blue Note, as were a number of..... - suretyguy 05:19:35 07/24/17 (1)
- RE: Two of the Mobley's I mentioned were released when Liberty owned Blue Note, as were a number of..... - fantja 06:32:14 07/24/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - fantja 10:34:16 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - GEO 10:01:23 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - suretyguy 08:27:29 07/23/17 (1)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - GEO 09:19:19 07/23/17 (0)
- Thanks! - kuma 20:46:10 07/22/17 (17)
- RE: Thanks! - suretyguy 07:27:05 07/23/17 (16)
- You need this experiment - - erik 07:49:36 07/23/17 (15)
- RE: You need this experiment - - suretyguy 08:06:13 07/23/17 (14)
- For this occasion - erik 08:28:41 07/23/17 (13)
- RE: For this occasion - suretyguy 19:12:20 07/23/17 (4)
- Now we're talking;) - erik 16:02:31 07/24/17 (3)
- RE: Now we're talking;) - fantja 16:27:22 07/24/17 (2)
- RE: Now we're talking;) - suretyguy 17:35:52 07/24/17 (1)
- RE: Now we're talking;) - fantja 04:03:22 07/26/17 (0)
- Good god. High flyin'.... - kuma 14:14:22 07/23/17 (1)
- RE: Good god. High flyin'.... - fantja 16:13:48 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: For this occasion - fantja 10:30:43 07/23/17 (3)
- I really like it. - erik 12:40:59 07/23/17 (2)
- Just like a Japanese hifi! (nt) - kuma 14:26:25 07/23/17 (1)
- :-) (nt) - erik 18:22:33 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: For this occasion - GEO 09:20:44 07/23/17 (1)
- Oh Yeah!!! - erik 12:41:48 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - kitch29 20:28:55 07/22/17 (0)
- I like Mobley - Mike K 17:40:09 07/22/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - fantja 16:18:53 07/22/17 (10)
- Mobley never was like Coltrane - erik 20:18:34 07/22/17 (4)
- No one is like Coltrane. No one is like Mobley, - oldmkvi 08:07:19 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Mobley never was like Coltrane - suretyguy 07:09:43 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Mobley never was like Coltrane - Tweaker456 20:55:55 07/22/17 (1)
- RE: Mobley never was like Coltrane - suretyguy 07:13:04 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - suretyguy 16:27:09 07/22/17 (4)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - Tweaker456 20:36:30 07/22/17 (1)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - suretyguy 07:21:22 07/23/17 (0)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - fantja 16:36:32 07/22/17 (1)
- RE: Hank Mobley...by request - Tweaker456 20:43:22 07/22/17 (0)