Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley was overshadowed by more influential tenors such as Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane during his career, but although he wasn't deliberately flashy or particularly innovative, his concisely measured, round sax tone made him the perfect ensemble player and he was a fine writer as well, a talent who has often been undervalued and overlooked. This two-disc package collects three of Mobley's albums for Blue Note, 1957’s Hank Mobley and Poppin’ and 1959’s Peckin’ Time, which amount to half of the albums he recorded for the label in a little more than a year’s time in what was a period of intense whirlwind creativity for Mobley. It’s all straight-ahead hard bop, and if Mobley didn't push the envelope a whole lot, his lyrical and economical playing was always appropriate and graceful, and that's certainly the case with the three albums collected here. ~ Steve Leggett
What's in the box
2 x CD
