Hank Mobley was one of Blue Note’s star attractions. Mosaic have issued two Blue Note boxed sets, one covering his ‘50s output, another for 1963-70. I have the latter, but not the former.
The first box contains the following Blue Note releases:
There’s a gap, in the Mosaic coverage, during which there were several Blue Note Releases not included in either set. These are:
I’ve ordered these gap-fillers. And I’ll be looking into how I can get either the first Mosaic box, or the albums it covers.
The second Mosaic set collects the following:
And then there are the non-Blue Note releases, for Savoy and Prestige:
Like many jazzers of this era, Mobley struggled with substance misuse. Heroin addiction lead to his incarceration for spells, in the fifties and sixties. And later in life his smoking – which finally killed him – would lead to a decline that saw his star fade into obscurity.
Very sad. But on these recordings, as leader, and many more as sideman, he left a lasting legacy, of great joy and beauty. I intend to fully savour that more positive bequest to the ages.