Since September 2010, this blog has recorded the journey of this music junkie as I attempt to listen to all the music in my CD collection. CDs revisited in their entirety from start to finish - no skipping tracks, no shuffle. Compact Discs only - no vinyl, no tapes, no files.

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Hank Mobley - Roll Call (1961)


This album is blast to spin because it is upbeat and relentlessly swings - ballads need not apply. This definitely ain't your relax-and-unwind-after-work album.

Original liner notes by Robert Levin

Mobley - tenor saxophone
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Wynton Kelly - piano
Paul Chambers - bass
Art Blakey - drums

Recorded Sunday, November 13, 1960 which means this all-star crew probably had a late night gig in NYC the night before. Nevertheless, Mobley, Hubbard, and Blakey shine here while Chambers and Kelly are solid throughout. As the four star review in Billboard states: "Good wax here."

Reviews/ratings:
  • DownBeat (★★★): "Mobley...remains a limited inventor."
  • Billboard (★★★★): "a flock of exciting performances."
  • Stereo Review: "communicates more fully than most recordings the intense pleasure experienced by jazz players in a thoroughly compatible group"
  • The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (1985): ★★★
  • The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Of the six tracks here, five are Mobley originals, all good and groovin'. Then there's a nice take on the 1945 standard, The More I See You. Also included in this 2002 Rudy Van Gelder edition is an alternate take of track 4, A Baptist Beat, which includes a bowed bass solo which isn't something you hear very often.

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