Hank Mobley (1930–1986) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist from Eastman, Georgia, a founding member of the Jazz Messengers and a defining hard bop voice on Blue Note. Soul Station (1960) is the one collections get built around — Roll Call and Workout aren't far behind. Shop Hank Mobley vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Henry Hank Mobley was born in Eastman, Georgia on July 7, 1930 and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was a founding member of the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey in 1954 and recorded extensively as both leader and sideman for Blue Note Records across the late 1950s and 1960s. He was a member of Miles Davis's quintet from 1961 to 1962, appearing on the live album Friday Night at the Blackhawk. His Soul Station (1960) on Blue Note is widely regarded as one of the defining tenor saxophone albums of the hard bop era. He died of pneumonia on May 30, 1986 at age 55.
Hank Mobley's sound combines hard bop, post-bop, soul jazz, and modal jazz with his distinctive smooth, melodically-oriented tenor saxophone style. He is widely cited as one of the foundational hard bop saxophonists alongside Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter - often described by critic Leonard Feather as the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone.
Original Blue Note pressings of the Hank Mobley catalog are foundational items in hard bop and jazz collecting. Multiple audiophile reissues including the Music Matters, Acoustic Sounds, Mobile Fidelity, and Blue Note Tone Poet series have made the catalog widely accessible.
Listeners new to Hank Mobley typically start with Soul Station (1960) or Roll Call (1960).
