Requisites

Curtain Call ~ Hank Mobley | By Eddie Carter

Hank Mobley was one of the most productive musicians on Blue Note during the fifties, recording as a leader and with some of the label’s best artists. This morning’s subject is a recent acquisition to the library that was originally recorded in 1957 but remained shelved until a 1984 Japanese release. Curtain Call (Blue Note BST 61006) is an excellent quintet session by the tenor saxophonist featuring Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, Jimmy Rowser on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. My copy used in this report is the 2022 Blue Note Tone Poet Series Stereo audiophile reissue, the first US vinyl release.

Side One starts with the first of four tunes by Hank Mobley. Don’t Get Too Hip is an easy-flowing midtempo blues that Clark introduces preceding the quintet’s collective theme. Sonny is up first with an easygoing attitude on the first statement. Kenny continues this pleasant exercise with a lengthy solo spot. Hank takes center stage next and sails smoothly through the third reading. Jimmy applies the finishing touch on a short statement ahead of the group’s reprise and ending. Curtain Call is off to the races on the ensemble’s speedy melody. Hank moves with astonishing velocity in the opening statement. Kenny drives the second reading with intense emotion, then Sonny takes an exhilarating turn. Art shares the final solo with the front line briefly before the close.

Deep In a Dream by Eddie DeLange and Jimmy Van Heusen is a gorgeous quartet performance illustrating Hank’s ability to interpret a ballad. Mobley and the trio begin with a delicately tasteful melody. He continues with an exquisitely beautiful opening statement. Clark expresses great warmth to the second solo, then Hank adds the exclamation point with sensitive delicacy into the foursome’s luscious ending. The quintet raises the curtain on Side Two with The Mobe. The ensemble begins the happy theme in unison, then Hank takes off on a terrifically agile first solo. Kenny takes over, feeling right at home on the second reading. Sonny spreads some joyful enthusiasm on the next statement. The front-line reappears to exchange a few final verses leading to the finish.

My Reverie by Claude Debussy and Larry Clinton is one of the delights of the set. Dorham has the spotlight to himself on the melody and first solo, handling both with equal effectiveness. Clark comes on next with an intriguing interpretation, followed by Mobley who delivers the next statement confidently. Dorham returns to take the song out with Mobley shadowing him in the background. On The Bright Side ends the album on a cheerful note beginning with the quintet’s brisk melody. Kenny draws us into the song with a lively opening statement. Sonny gives a sterling account on the second solo. Hank endows the third interpretation with a feisty spirit, and Taylor sparkles in a brief exchange with Dorham and Mobley into the closing theme.

Curtain Call was originally produced by Alfred Lion and Rudy Van Gelder was the man behind the dials. Joe Harley supervised this reissue and Kevin Gray did the mastering. The sound quality is breathtaking with a terrific soundstage that transports the musicians to your listening room as you enjoy the album. The cover’s worthy of hanging on your wall and the gatefold photos are gorgeous. The record is pressed on 180-gram audiophile vinyl and is incredibly quiet until the music starts. If you enjoy Hank Mobley and love good Hard-Bop, I invite you to check out Curtain Call on your next vinyl treasure hunt. In my opinion, it’s one of his best fifties recordings and one listen is sure to hook you, just as one listen sold me!

~ Hank Mobley Quintet Featuring Sonny Clark (Blue Note BNJ 61006) – Source: Discogs.com ~ My Reverie – Source: Wikipedia.org © 2022 by Edward Thomas Carter

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Karin Krog was born May 15, 1937 in Oslo, Norway and started singing jazz as a teenager, attracting attention while performing in jam sessions in her hometown. By 1955, she was hired by the pianist Kjell Karlsen to sing in his sextet.

1962 saw Karin forming her first band and becoming a student of the Norwegian-American singer Anne Brown, studying with her until 1969. Throughout the Sixties she performed with the rhythm and blues band Public Enemies, releasing the hit singles Sunny and Watermelon Man.

She has worked with Vigleik Storaas, Jacob Young, Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen, Jan Garbarek, Dexter Gordon, Kenny Drew, Don Ellis, Steve Kuhn, Archie Shepp, Paul Bley, John Surman, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Red Mitchell, and Bengt Hallberg. During 1994, she became the first Norwegian musician to have an album released by Verve Records. The album Jubilee was a compilation of songs from her thirty-year career.

She has released thirty-seven albums as a leader with her latest live album Infinite Paths in 2016, as well as three as a guest. Vocalist Karin Krog, who has been bestowed with fifteen awards, including being knighted in 2005 into the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olavz, continues to compose and perform.

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Skip Martin was born Lloyd Vernon Martin on May 14, 1916 in Robinson, Illinois. He was an active arranger during the swing jazz band era of the 1930s and 1940s. working with Count Basie, Charlie Barnet, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. He doubled as a reedist with the latter three, and recorded with trumpeter Cootie Williams in the early 1940s as well.

Later in the 1940s Skip worked with Les Brown before moving to Los Angeles, California in the 1950s, where he did extensive work as a staff and freelance orchestrator, studio conductor and popular song arranger Tony Martin, The Pied Pipers, the Andrews and De Castro sister groups, and Barbara Ruick.

Martin recorded three albums as a leader and produced material for West Coast jazz and swing concept albums such as Scheherajazz in 1959 for Somerset Records. In 1963 he joined Nelson Riddle on a dream team of arrangers working on the Sinatra-Burke compilation albums for the ambitious Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre project, featuring the singing members of the Rat Pack, plus Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Jo Stafford.

In Hollywood, Skip was one of the team of orchestrators contributing to Singin’ in the Rain, Guys and Dolls, and shared  arrangement credits with Conrad Salinger on Summer Stock, Kiss Me Kate and Funny Face, where a few songs of the Great American Songbook came from. He retained sole credit as orchestrator for Judy Garland’s comeback vehicle A Star Is Born, which gave us The Man That Got Away and It’s A New World.

Saxophonist, clarinetist, and music arranger Skip Martin transitioned on February 12, 1976, in Los Angeles, California.

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Harold Rubin was born on May 13, 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa of Israeli descent. Attending Jeppe High School for Boys he received private instruction in the fine arts and classical clarinet as a teenager. He developed a fascination with jazz and began playing at the Skyline Night Club at eighteen. He went on to enroll as an architecture student at the University of the Witwatersrand and completed his professional studies in London, England.

Rubin’s creative endeavours in South African society during the 1950s and 1960s dissented against the apartheid-era Afrikaner establishment by defying the country’s racist social norms. Rubin organised his own jazz group in the 1950s, snuck into black townships, and played alongside black musicians.

Openly protesting the repressive political environment, Harold left the country for Israel, where he quickly established himself in Tel Aviv, and was employed as an architect and taught at an academy of architecture and design from the 1960s until his retirement in 1986. He returned to playing jazz in late 1979, having previously given up performance for more than a decade after his emigration from Africa. He became a founding member of the 1980s Zaviot Jazz Quartet, who throught he decade performed and recorded on Jazzis Records.

He was awarded the Landau Award in tribute to his contributions to jazz music in 2008, he continued to play jazz with musicians of the younger generations in Tel Aviv. Clarinetist Harold Rubin, who concentrated in the free jazz genre, transitioned on April 1, 2020 at the age of 87.

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The Quarantined Jazz Voyager

A simple statement: You know what to do to remain safe and healthy. The fat lady hasn’t begun to warm up because it’s not over.

This week I am featuring an album by an understated vocalist who recorded some two dozen albums. I’ve selected from the library. I Just Dropped By To Say Hello is a studio album by jazz vocalist Johnny Hartman, released on Impulse! Records. It was his second and next-to-last album on the label, after his highly successful collaboration with John Coltrane which produced John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, recorded a few months earlier.

Tracks 1 & 6 were recorded on October 9, 1963 and the balance of the songs were recorded on October 17, 1963 at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It was produced by Bob Thiele, The album was mastered at Longwear Plating and released in 1964. Tracks 1~6 were on the A side of the album and 7~11, the B side of the original album.

Track List | 33:09
  1. Charade (from Charade) (Henry Mancini, Johnny Mercer) ~ 2:38
  2. In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning (Bob Hilliard, David Mann) ~ 2:49
  3. A Sleepin’ Bee (Harold Arlen, Truman Capote) ~ 2:15
  4. Don’t You Know I Care (Or Don’t You Care To Know) (Mack David, Duke Ellington) ~ 4:14
  5. Kiss & Run (Rene Denoncin, William Engvick, Jack Ledru) ~ 3:35
  6. If I’m Lucky (Eddie DeLange, Josef Myrow) ~ 2:52
  7. I Just Dropped by to Say Hello (Sid Feller, Rick Ward) ~ 4:10
  8. Stairway to the Stars (Matty Malneck, Mitchell Parish, Frank Signorelli) ~ 3:09
  9. Our Time (Stanley Glick, Johnny Hartman) ~ 3:00
  10. Don’t Call It Love (Ronnell Bright) ~ 2:07
  11. How Sweet It Is to Be in Love (George Cardini, Danny DiMinno) ~ 2:20
The Players
  • Johnny Hartman ~ vocals
  • Illinois Jacquet ~ tenor saxophone
  • Kenny Burrell ~ guitar (tracks 2-5, 7-11)
  • Jim Hall ~ guitar (tracks 1, 6)
  • Hank Jones ~ piano
  • Milt Hinton ~ double bass
  • Elvin Jones ~ drums

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