Playing in the Style of Mobley

For the last couple of months I have been actively listening to two Hank Mobley albums, “Roll Call” (1960), featuring Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Wynton Kelly (piano) and Paul Chambers (bass); and also “Soul Station” (1960), featuring the same line-up, minus Hubbard. These two records are among my favourite jazz works of all time. Every track on each of them is an uncompromising musical conversation between a bunch of extremely talented swing-era contemporaries. As discussed in some of my earlier blogs, some of my first influences as a jazz musician include Chick Corea’s “Return to Forever”, “Light Years”, and “Like Minds” featuring Pat Metheny and Dave Holland which to this day still remain a giant influence on my style and expression. However, in this blog, I wanted to address specifically the playing style of one of the greatest tenor saxophone players of all time, Hank Mobley; and more specifically, playing in the style of Mobley.

My first great Mobley love was “Roll Call”; an album that, like “Soul Station”, I listened to religiously for several months. This album, and many other Mobley albums have helped to shape the way in which I approach jazz music, and compose in a jazz context. The melodies that Mobley exhibits in his recordings are simple, yet of the highest quality. I have been striving for this quality that is prevalent in Hank’s playing style and personal expression. Indeed, more important than the melodies themselves, his phrasings (rhythmic, or harmonic) of these melodies has been top rate. I draw much influence from Mobley in terms of both these two factors: melody and phrasing. For my playing in particular, the issue of phrasing has been an ongoing struggle, and in some instances, a discouragement. It’s tough to play a line that is smooth and rounded out. To me, phrasing requires an awareness of numerous instrumental techniques. In my case, since I’m an electric bass player, techniques such as legato, hammers and pulls, slides, staccato and accents, and straight plucking among others are phrasing necessities. All these things make for a well rounded line, that sounds smooth and musically pleasing. Hank Mobley, on these two records, was the master at this, phrasing his lines with various tongings and other saxophone techniques. I believe that this is a very important part of every jazz musicians playing capabilities: being able to phrase a melody to make it sound pleasing.

Phrasing is certainly an important aspect of Mobley’s playing style. However, the key factor that I wanted to discuss in this blog was his choice of notes. The lines that he created in the moment of these recordings. Later on, after hearing “Roll Call”, I listened to “Soul Station”. It wasn’t until a good month and a half later, that I decided to transcribe one of his solos. I transcribed the Mobley solo off of “Remember”, an Irving Berlin composition. It was a mammoth task, an epic assignment, taking a good eight hours to (mostly) complete. However, what I gained from that seemingly enormous, ear-melting exercise, was an idea of the concepts and melodies that one of the leading jazz masters of the early 60’s created. The transcription was one thing, learning the solo was another. And I believe my melodic side of my playing benefited the most from this. As I frequently discuss in other blog posts, my time at the School of Music has taught me much that I hadn’t known previously. In the first Semester I was introduced to some important jazz soloing concepts, that I had been assured that, ” … all the guys you hear on recordings use.” Concepts such as chromatic enclosures, double-chromatics from above and below, and double-chromatics leading to enclosures, all of which are present in this one Mobley solo. However, what I struggled to do with this information that I was given, was to implement it into my own solos and lines in a manner that made sense to the line that I was playing. Having disciplined myself to do this transcription (whether all the notes are right or not), I feel that I’ve had my queries settled, and not a moment too late!

I know I’m going to be repeating myself, but the key point that I want to shed light on in this post, is the concept of “playing in the style of Mobley, as a bass player”. Indeed, many of the Mobley solos on these records are technically challenging for saxophone. However, they are also very hard on the bass. Now, the question that I want to raise is this: “Why aren’t bass players today, playing lines like Mobley was 50 years ago?” Personally, I feel that a lot of bass players today (myself included) fall into the trap of playing similar sounding lines, all the time, on every solo. And the primary reason for this, I believe, is that we try to play something that ” … fits easily under the fingers.” Evidently from transcribing this solo, almost every line that he played resulted in a somewhat awkward fingering for me to play in, but it sounds really, really good. This has been a challenge for me over the last couple of weeks; to play what you hear in your head, no matter how bewildering it may seem to position on the neck. I believe Mobley became the super-star that he was in the 50’s and 60’s because he did just that, staying true to the music, and where it was going along the way.

I hope this post has been an encouraging read. Hopefully you stuck around to the end! If you have any questions about any of the content that I’ve covered in this blog, feel free to email me, or leave a comment.

Thanks for reading, and talk to you all soon.

Jared