Search - Hank Mobley, Morgan, Spaulding :: Third Season

Third Season
Hank Mobley, Morgan, Spaulding
Third Season
Genres: Jazz, Pop
 
  •  Track Listings (6) - Disc #1

In the late 1950s, tenor man Hank Mobley was part of the groundbreaking hard-bop bands of Art Blakey and Horace Silver. In the early 1960s, he became a Blue Note tenor-sax perennial known for his fluid and soulful improvis...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Hank Mobley, Morgan, Spaulding, Greenwich
Title: Third Season
Members Wishing: 4
Total Copies: 0
Label: Blue Note Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/1967
Re-Release Date: 11/17/1998
Genres: Jazz, Pop
Style: Bebop
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 724349750623

Synopsis

Amazon.com
In the late 1950s, tenor man Hank Mobley was part of the groundbreaking hard-bop bands of Art Blakey and Horace Silver. In the early 1960s, he became a Blue Note tenor-sax perennial known for his fluid and soulful improvisations across simple originals, blues, and ballads on superb blowing-session albums such as Soul Station and Workout. But Mobley became more ambitious as time went on, and by the time he recorded this 1967 album, his composing and arranging was considerably more complex, diverse, and challenging, especially rhythmically. Recording with a fine septet including Lee Morgan, Cedar Walton, little-known avant guitarist Sonny Greenwich (a far cry from Grant Green), and a particularly active and inspired Billy Higgins, Mobley shows a slightly more angular, freer approach here than on his earlier dates, though still well within the hard-bop mainstream. --Marc Greilsamer
 

CD Reviews

Better than expected.
Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 12/11/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)

"There's no one--I'll say it again: no one, period--who improvises more creatively than Hank Mobley, 1954-1963. Anything from this period gets played every day in my collection: it's music of inexhaustible lyricism and unforced beauty--more palatable than a constant diet of any other saxophonist I can think of. Beginning as early as 1964 Hank begins to buckle--to the pressures from Blue Note for not selling records, to the pressures of peers, who were either running funk-wild over boogaloo beats or churning out the same Dorian mode tunes over and over again. Neither approach treated Hank kindly, who couldn't "sell out" even when he tried to. Sound was his medium, his instrument, his voice--not his gimmick.



This session has more of the old Mobley than I would have expected and, moreover, is not mired in soul cliches or faux modal freedom. But the proceedings get dull in a hurry, as though a listless Mobley senses it's about over, short of a last few, mostly unfortunate, attempts to gain the ears of listeners in the late sixties and beyond. Pick it up only if you're determined to fill in all of the chapters of the rise and fall of a natural-born singer on the instrument, perhaps the most inventive yet purest aesthete the blues has ever known."
Third Season Only Gets A Third Star
Michael B. Richman | Portland, Maine USA | 07/25/2000
(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is a mediocre Hank Mobley CD to say the least. Mobley's late 50s Blue Note albums are solid hard bop affairs, and his early 60s albums for the label are classics. But after 1963, the albums are hit or miss. The problems with "The Third Season" can be summed up in the first track, "An Aperitif." After a creative theme, Lee Morgan plays an uncharacteristically uninspired trumpet solo, and Sonny Greenwich, when he's not trying to catch up to the song's tempo, is playing some pretty boring licks. Thankfully, Mobley and Cedar Walton are in fine form, and they help save the recording. Since this is a limited edition CD, many people will want to pick it up quickly. But if you're new to Mobley's music, start with "Soul Station" or "Workout.""
Very Good CD
William Jones | Rockville, MD USA | 12/06/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Anything with Hank Mobley, Cedar Walton, Lee Morgan, and Billy Higgins has to be a classic. Except for Boss Bossa, every tune is a standout."