Hank Mobley Quintet

Robert Levin opens the original notes with a cold, wet Friday night in December 1955. Harry Colomby, an American history teacher, had booked the Jazz Messengers for a concert at Far Rockaway High School on Long Island, one of the first of its kind on the East Coast. The show was set for 8:30. The band was driving down from Storyville in Boston, Doug Watkins's bass had been damaged, and the rain made the school hard to find. A pickup band held the room for nearly an hour. At 9:35 a black sedan pulled up, and the Messengers went on to do what Blakey called "teaching jazz."

By 1957 those Messengers were no longer together. But for one Friday, March 8, 1957, four of the five were back together at Van Gelder's in Hackensack, under Hank Mobley's name, with Alfred Lion producing. Silver played piano, Watkins bass and Blakey drums. The one newcomer was Art Farmer on trumpet, in Kenny Dorham's old chair. Levin thought him a gifted player who was too often overlooked.

Mobley was 26, born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and had worked with Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie and Lester Young before the Messengers. He wrote all six tunes. Eight takes were made that day, and two of them, alternates of "Wham and They're Off" and "Funk in Deep Freeze," were saved for CD reissues much later.

On side one, "Funk in Deep Freeze" is bouncy and bluesy: Farmer solos first, then Silver, then a short one from Watkins before Mobley comes in. "Wham and They're Off" starts with Blakey alone, then the theme in unison, then Mobley. "Fin de l'affaire" is a ballad, with Farmer playing muted.

Side two runs "Startin' from Scratch," fast, and "Stella-Wise," a little slower, both with long solos all round. "Base on Balls" is a minor blues that Watkins opens with a walking bass line, and he walks it out at the end too.

Levin's last word goes to the leader. He hears Mobley's voice coming of age.

It is vital, flexible and potent and should be heard.

Robert Levin, original liner notes

AllMusic's Steve Leggett, quoted by Wikipedia, saw it the same way decades later: Mobley "plays with confidence and lyrical economy."

The sleeve was designed by Harold Feinstein, with a photograph by Francis Wolff.

The record came out in early August 1957, and four of its tunes went out on two 45s. Six weeks after the date Mobley was back at Van Gelder's with a sextet, for the record that became BLP 1560.