
Hank Mobley - Mobley's Message - Analogue Productions LP (Mono)
Cut from the analogue masters by renowned mastering engineer Kevin Gray 180-gram pressing by Quality Record Pressings Deluxe high-gloss tip-on album jacket "...hard-bop devotees shouldn't overlook Mobley's Message, especially when they can savor this superb vinyl reissue." Sonics = 5/5; Music = 3.5/5 — Duck Baker, The Absolute Sound, October 2013 Critic Leonard Feather asserted that Hank Mobley was “the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone,” meaning that his tone wasn’t as aggressive and thick as John Coltrane or Sonny Rollins, but neither was it as soft and cool as Stan Getz or Lester Young. Mobley helped inaugurate the hard bop movement: Jazz that balanced sophistication and soulfulness, complexity and earthy swing, and whose loose structure allowed for extended improvisations. Born in Eastman, Georgia, in 1930, but raised in New Jersey, Hank’s long-lined tenor offerings became a staple for pianist Horace Silver’s group, which evolved into the ‘50s super quintet co-led by