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Hank Mobley - Dippin' RVG


Soulstation1

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I've never heard this one either--been waiting for the RVG, and picked it up Saturday. What a great session! I think my favorite is the ballad, "I See Your Face Before Me." AMG says it doesn't belong on the album... yeah, whatever. I love HM's ballad-playing more & more through the years.

Edited by ghost of miles
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Thanks for the reminder. The NY USA LP is going up on deck later tonight. This is a Hank album that really grows on you. It is deceptive - it starts off laid-back, almost in MOR vein but noticeably ups the momentum into side 2. I particularly like the last track on side 2 - Ballin' - in which Morgan and Mabern generate incredible drive and ends the album on a real high. This is an LP for which you need to crank the volume up.

I think my CD copy is the late-80s McMaster issue so probably won't be replacing it (unless there are some nice snazzy Francis Wolff pictures of the The Mobe in the liner notes).

Second also Ghost's comments re: Mobley's superb ballad playing on 'I See Your Face Before Me'.

:tup

Edited by sidewinder
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Thanks for the reminder. The NY USA LP is going up on deck later tonight. This is a Hank album that really grows on you. It is deceptive - it starts off laid-back, almost in MOR vein but noticeably ups the momentum into side 2. I particularly like the last track on side 2 - Ballin' - in which Morgan and Mabern generate incredible drive and ends the album on a real high. This is an LP for which you need to crank the volume up.

I think my CD copy is the late-80s McMaster issue so probably won't be replacing it (unless there are some nice snazzy Francis Wolff pictures of the The Mobe in the liner notes).

Second also Ghost's comments re: Mobley's superb ballad playing on 'I See Your Face Before Me'.

:tup

I see this one a lot like Sidewinder here does. I've got the new RVG and dig the sound!

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harold mabern was the man.

every blue note sesssion he was on benefited from his presence.

...and Harold's still around, isn't he? His name came up in a conversation I had with a friend & fellow jazz-lover a few weeks ago, in conjunction with some other 1960s record that he was on.

Very much so. Along with felser and alankin, I saw him play with Eric Alexander here in Philly several months ago. Got to talk with him after the show, and he drew a picture for my 11-year-old daughter when she asked him for an autograph.

His more recent recordings as leader on Venus, DIW, and Sackville are also highly recommended.

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This is my favorite Hank album bar none. If I was forced at gunpoint to go through life with only one Mobley recorded appearance, this would be it. Period. Five like-minded souls living and breathing as one w/o a hint of "recording" going on.

Favorite song? "The Breakthrough". That's about as perfect as this shit gets, including the ending, how the last note is just a hard little "bop" that cuts off immediately with just a touch of reverb to carry it over. My hunch is that there might have been something that happened after that note that necessitated such an abrupt cutoff, but who knows?

Don't have the RVG, don't want the RVG, I don't think. Managed to get a pre-Liberty LP new back in the 70s and have treated it with TLC ever since. Got the McMaster for portability purposes a while back, and it's served well in that capacity. Don't want to hear this one any differently than I have been hearing it all these years. Thanks, but.....no.

Dippin' is the real deal.

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Hopefully an interesting side note: This was in the first Liberty distributed release from BN. Still BN pressings and covers. I remember the salesman visiting the JRM and giving me a promo. Can't be too many "real" BN copies out there.

Hell, I just looked, and I've got a mono copy. Never noticed that before. :blink::blink::blink:

Definitely don't want the RVG now. Don't think I could handle the shock! :g

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...and Harold's still around, isn't he? His name came up in a conversation I had with a friend & fellow jazz-lover a few weeks ago, in conjunction with some other 1960s record that he was on.

Oh my God yes, he still around!

Here is a near future gig at SMOKE:

Friday, March 17, 2006

Eric Alexander Quartet

Eric Alexander (tenor saxophone) · Harold Mabern (piano) · Joe Farnsworth (drums)

Here is a photo of his hands by John Abbott:

jazz_Harold_Mabern_Hands.jpg

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Harold plays at Smoke a lot. Also teaches at William Patterson in NJ.

Yeah, Dippin' is great no doubt. But I wonder what makes it Jim's favorite Mobley album above all others. I enjoy it a lot, but I'm not sure it's even in my top 5.

How 'bout some musical insight Jim since you're a tenor player and this is your fav. Hank LP. Shine some light on it for the rest of us.

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Yeah, Dippin' is great no doubt. But I wonder what makes it Jim's favorite Mobley album above all others. I enjoy it a lot, but I'm not sure it's even in my top 5.

How 'bout some musical insight Jim since you're a tenor player and this is your fav. Hank LP. Shine some light on it for the rest of us.

None to offer, I'm afraid. It just hits that spot in me.

Although, I guess I could say that to me, it's the perfect "transition" album between the mid-period Mobley & the late. You got that compressed sense of about-to-burst energy pared down to the essence, but with just enough of the earlier lyricism to distinguish it from the later, stubborn paring down to a relatively few phrases in the vocabulary (I exxagerate, but only to make the point). Very tense (in a good way), taut playing from Hank, and totally gripping where and what I like to be gripped.

It's also one of Billy Higgins' most interactive performances of a career that was all about interactivity. And Lee & Hank were, afaic, his truest "soulmates" in the BN stable, so you're talking high level stacked upon high level. Not coincidentally, I think it's also one of his best recorded BN dates. But then again, I've been unknowingly listening to it in mono for almost 30 years, so what do I know? :g:g:g

Bottom line though - it just hits that spot. Nothing else like it for this style of BN jazz, except for "Our Man Higgins" from Cornbread. That shit just hits me where I live.

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Right on so many counts as usual Jim. Lee and Hank were really music soulmates of the highest order. Also, is it just me or are Larry Ridley and Billy Higgins also one of those magical combinations. I don't know how many albums they play together on, but it seems that whenever I see that pairing on a BN, I always love the music involved. Also, love Harold.

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Hopefully an interesting side note: This was in the first Liberty distributed release from BN. Still BN pressings and covers. I remember the salesman visiting the JRM and giving me a promo. Can't be too many "real" BN copies out there.

Just checked my LP and it looks early Liberty with 'Van Gelder' and no ear, mono copy. 1966 inner sleeve so seems to line up with the above.

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Hopefully an interesting side note: This was in the first Liberty distributed release from BN. Still BN pressings and covers. I remember the salesman visiting the JRM and giving me a promo. Can't be too many "real" BN copies out there.

Just checked my LP and it looks early Liberty with 'Van Gelder' and no ear, mono copy. 1966 inner sleeve so seems to line up with the above.

In fact "real" BN copies of this title - meaning being manufactured at the Plastylite pressing plant - do not (seem to) exist; the first copies date from the "Liberty-era". What might be confusing though, is that these first pressings still have Blue Note USA - and not Liberty - labels (but no ear). This is not unique for this title, as Blue Note kept using older labels - sometimes even w/Lexington address - during the Liberty era.

Anyway, Liberty or not, the vinyl edition of Dippin' does sound great!

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