Search - Hank Mobley :: Caddy for Daddy

Another step ahead, another cut above

Andrzej Grutza | San Francisco, CA USA | 08/24/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As with many of Hank Mobley's early-mid '60s Blue Note recordings, this effort leads off with the Rumproller-like title cut. What follows is a near ode to John Coltrane, the wonderfully haunting "The Morning After", augmented by Curtis Fuller's trombone. This and the fact that the pianist McCoy Tyner, who had recently split from the expanded classic Coltrane group, appears ought to arouse one's curiosity. But the tenor sax solo on "The Morning After" is no mere imitation - and, indeed, nothing of Mobley's ever is. The recording careens with Wayne Shorter's "Venus Di Mildew" evoking the feel produced in three of the group members' Blakeyan bands of the previous decade. Mobley flashes his adept songwriting skills in the last two numbers, the tricky "Ace Deuce Trey" (Mobley also keeps his string of great song-titles intact) and the closer, the avant-hard bop "3rd Time Around." Both songs cook. This is the sound of Hank Mobley in his mid-thirties, simultaneously honing and evolving his simmering tone and sound while showing his keen awareness of the changes that had swept through jazz by the time of this recording in late 1965. Tyner, Fuller and Mobley join the usual brand of high achievers, ever-steady Bob Cranshaw on bass, the joyous and bouncy Billy Higgins on drums and, naturally, Lee Morgan, the great trumpeter, to produce five lithe pieces that will swing forever. Hank Mobley isn't generally viewed as a great innovator, but a listener can hear him responding, in his own voice, to the rapidly changing musical form with an always listenable, rolling harmonic style; in other words, one can hear him aiming and hitting his mark. This CD is a rollicking, more risk-taking companion to the equally recommended "Dippin'", recorded earlier that year. With Hank Mobley's posthumous star growing brighter, it's no wonder his recordings seem more prescient now than ever."

Not worth remastering.

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 11/19/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The overly done separation between Morgan's trumpet and Mobley's horn could use a better mix, though the substance of the music hardly justifies another Van Gelder remastering (moreover, the new editions do little to address the problem of the "bottled-up" piano sound characterizing virtually every Van Gelder date). Ira Gitler, along with the other writers of Mobley's liner notes after 1963, can expatiate and prattle on about the tenor man's "development," "evolution," "growth," but it's painfully clear to anyone who discovered this brilliant musician's ceaselessly inventive melodic language and unforced, soulful sound in the '50's and early '60's that "Caddy" is another depressing record of compromise and concession by an artist who deserved far better.



The modal compositions and addition of McCoy Tyner, recently replaced by Alice in Coltrane's group, did nothing to expand Mobley's commercial appeal or earn him the "modernist" respect he felt compelled to court beginning in the sixties, especially after his brief, unenviable role as Coltrane's successor in Miles Davis' quintet (where he actually acquits himself handsomely when judged in terms of his own unique talent). Even the attempt (a rather feeble one) at a hip title for the recording (today, it might me "pimp my ride") betrays the confused nature of the session and its intended audience.



The man still can play, and some of the "old" Mobley emerges on "Venus di Mildew," but all followers of this towering giant (impossible to overrate, in my judgment) should rejoice that the brass at Capitol/Emi (i.e. Blue Note) recently saw fit to release (effectively, for the first time) "Another Workout," which would have to be titled "Exceptional Workout" were it a date by any other musician."

This would rate 5 stars just for Lee Morgan's solo on Venus

sparkyk | Los Angeles, California USA | 12/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album presents a number of top muicians associated with Blue Note at the top of their form on a blowing date. Consequently, it is oriented more toward great playing than complex compositions -- although the compositions themselves are nothing to sneeze at. The result is a collection of cuts that feature really confident, inventive jazz playing by true masters. Rarely did Lee Morgan take better solos on record than he did here. McCoy Tyner is luminous, creative and articulate and Billy Higgins swings throughout in his own inimitable, buoyant way. This is a special and underappreciated album that should be heard more widely."