Hank Mobley has been described as “the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone” … a metaphor used to describe his tone, which was neither as aggressive as John Coltrane nor as mellow as Lester Young. His style was laid-back, subtle and melodic, especially in contrast with players like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. At the risk of sounding like a name-dropper, I’ll also point out that, like Charlie “Bird” Parker, any video of Hank is extremely rare. Mobley’s 1968 performance of Summertime at the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen is the only one I could find. His tenor is joined by Kenny Drew on piano, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen (NHOP) on bass and Albert “Tootie” Heath playing drums.
The two tunes just below that are Remember where Hank is joined by Art Blakey on drums, Wynton Kelly playing piano, and Paul Chambers on bass … and Flirty Gerty with Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Jackie McLean on alto, Bob Cranshaw playing bass, Billy Higgins at the drums, John Hicks on piano and, of course, Hank Mobley out front with his tenor.
