The Unfamiliar Giant of Hard Bop. Who Was Hank Mobley? 

"This I dig of you" is one of the greatest cuts on any jazz album.

Wonderful overview of one of my most favorite tenor players. Did not know about his later years health problems; pretty heartbreaking. A vastly underrated jazz giant; always rewarding and satisfying.

Definitely one the greats. Right up there with Trane and Rollins.

Love Hank Mobley! Thanks for this

I'm a Mobley fan and have several of his records - nice to see this!

Great! I love listening to Hank Mobley!

Great stuff! So sad that he ended up in such a low place.

I have loved his sound and when I say he is my fav, I must admit people dismiss me... I think it is outstanding with a sound the is uniquely his own... Hank is a Giant of Bop....

Great piece acknowledging the "king of the middleweights!"

Hank was my mom's guy. She really dug his work. I didn't get it as a youngster. I was on the funk with James Brown, Sly, the Isleys, Motown, and the Philly sound(I grew up in West Philly; Barbara Mason, the Intruders, etc). When I really started getting into jazz as an older guy, I checked out Hank. My personal favorite song of his is "The Morning After" with Lee Morgan, Curtis Fuller, and McCoy Tyner. It's on a album called "A Caddy For Daddy". A stone cold jam....!

One of my absolute favorites. Great video!

A great tenor player-I've never understood why he was so underrated.

Such a melodic tenor player and fabulous composer, thanks for putting this review together 🎷👍👍

That was really a smart and well structured video. Really really great job guys. I feel like I could recognize. Mobley’s playing anywhere now. Not bad for a trumpet player.

RIP Hank 🙏

This is very much appreciated…. Thanks

Good episode. Can you do Tina Brooks and Zoot Sims? Thanks!

My Pop had Roll Call and I loved it and became a big Hank Mobley fan. I’ve been a tenor player in Chicago for 30+ years now, and I still dig Hank. He was very sophisticated and subtle, and ended up being overshadowed by his contemporaries John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins, who were more aggressive. The story of Miles putting him down has, I feel, an undiscussed facet to it. Miles liked to hire really aggressive soloists like Cannonball and ‘Trane, so when they were done breathing fire Miles could stroll nonchalantly into the picture and squeeze out a few choice and tasty notes. Mobley was just as cool and understated as Miles, so the contrast was lost and Miles knew it and dispensed with Hank. It was a good decision aesthetically, but Miles must have felt bad about it, so he impugned Hank’s approach to make it Hank’s fault. Really nice video. I hope more people check Hank out because of it.

Thank you...

Very underrated!! Thank you for this exposure.

Unfamiliar? I hope not . One of the Giants of our national treasure:Jazz .

The most insane part of all of this is that he got good enough to play with roach and Gillespie after only 4 years of playing.

“Whistle Stop” with Kenny Dorham. A classic.

It's a real shame how the great Hank Mobley was so underrated as a player.During the 60's he made lots of recordings and many were released years later after being recorded.Mobley a true hard bop technician all the way until he couldn't play anymore.Hell i am sure he could have done with the money from those recordings at the time.Playing Lee Morgan's RAJAH.Mobley swinging melodically. Next up on the turntable is FAR AWAY LANDS.All hail Hank Mobley.

I don't think I agree that Mobley was harmonically more advanced than other musicians of his generation or even earlier generations. Maybe he knew more about harmony on a conscious level than others but when I transcribe his stuff it's just mainstream jazz harmony. Nothing wrong with that, I love it. But there are no tricks you wouldn't expect from someone who knows his chord changes and substitutions

Most melodic saxophonist of all time

Cool vid 😎

BigOnBebop.Enjoying your vids.Any chance of showcasing two Tenor greats BOOKER ERVIN and JOE FARREL?

The “middleweight champion” of the sax 😂

Just my opinion here, but I prefer Mobley's recordings as a leader more than his sideman dates. In an era where we had Johhny Griffin, Sonny Stitt, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon and later Joe Henderson, Mobley's light sound gets drowned out and it's the same when he's got someone like Art Blakey behind him on those live dates, Mobley's gentle sound gets swallowed up..at least to me anyway. To me it sounds unbalanced. I just think he sounded better when he could control the environment around him, like on Soul Station for example where you can relax and really appreciate his gorgeous sound and lyricism.

Opinions & superlatives make subjective presuppositions. There are no truths, just more or less tragic life-cycles. Jazz is both devilish & divine - 2 many succumbed to smack.

He's not unfamiliar to me - after a semester in David Baker's Jazz Combo history class 31 years ago - he was on a lot of the records on our listening list.

Not in my circles

He's not underrated at all in my opinion. Mobley sits exactly where he should be in terms noteriety. He was a wonderful player, but he wasn't an innovator and he certainly wasn't a standout among an era of biggest boldest tenor players this music has produced.

We just reading Wikipedia now? Don't knock the hustle. Wrong cover for workout

Unfamiliar??? I beg to differ. Unfamiliar to whom?

Giant of Hard bop? What is hard bop? If Mobley is a "giant", there are thousands of giants in Jazz A good sax, without any doubt. He didn't invent anything. And not "underrated" at all, he had a wonderfull career.