no room for squares

Hank Mobley carved out his own shapely sound with the fierce fluidity of these modal hardbop blues. Mobley had taught himself to play saxophone when he was a teenager and worked with Paul Gayten, Max Roach, and Dizzy Gillespie before taking part in the seminal hardbop sessions that produced  'Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers'.  As a bandleader, he recorded with his quartet, quintet, and sextet; as well as with His All Stars before an arrest for drugs sidelined him for a couple of years.  He rejoined the Jazz Messengers briefly before embarking on a string of hard bop classics:    'Soul Station', 'Role Call', and 'Workout'.  Around this same period he joined Miles Davis' quintet as a replacement for John Coltrane on 'Someday My Prince Will Come'.  (as well as two live albums:  'In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk' and 'Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall')

Mobley would recall:  “I had the knowledge. When I got strung out it was my own fault. A person getting strung out at age 18; that’s a problem. He doesn’t even have a chance to learn what life is about. By the time I got strung out I had learned my instrument, I was making money...I told Miles ‘I never played with somebody who plays like Art Tatum on the saxophone.’ Miles said, ‘That’s why I hired you. I want to put your interpretation with his.'...But when I left Miles, I was so tired of music, the whole world, man, I just went back to drugs.” 

Mobley's next wave would be even more daring.  'No Room For Squares' was recorded for Blue Note Records at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.  The album is culled from two sessions with different lineups.   On March 7, 1963 he recorded "Up a Step" and "Old World, New Imports" (more tracks from this session would be released later on 'The Turnaround') with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on piano, and Butch Warren on bass;  while October 2, 1963 his band featured Lee Morgan on trumpet, Andrew Hill on piano, and John Ore on bass.  Both sessions feature Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone with Philly Joe Jones on drums.  

Mobley would describe his own style thusly:   “not a big sound, not a small sound, just a round sound”.    







http://hankmobley.blogspot.com/

http://hankmobley.jazzgiants.net/





"No Room For Squares"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZu42x8LWVM



"Carolyn"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2PPbeBVHwQ







'No Room For Squares' 
full album:

https://myspace.com/hankmobleymusic/music/album/no-room-for-squares-the-rudy-van-gelder-edition-18989476

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcq_zg-Zw5k&list=PLFBADE21A3C6C7A53




All compositions by Hank Mobley except as indicated

"Three Way Split" – 7:49
"Carolyn" (Morgan) – 5:30
"Up a Step" – 8:31
"No Room for Squares" – 6:57
"Me 'N You" (Morgan) – 7:17
"Old World, New Imports" – 6:08

bonus
"Comin' Back"
"Syrup and Biscuits"