BLP 4230

Hank Mobley - A Caddy For Daddy

Released - September 1967

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, December 18, 1965
Lee Morgan, trumpet; Curtis Fuller, trombone #1,3-5; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; McCoy Tyner, piano; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.

1669 tk.7 Third Time Around
1670 tk.12 Venus De Mildew
1671 tk.20 Ace, Deuce, Trey
1672 tk.23 The Morning After
1673 tk.27 A Caddy For Daddy

Session Photos

Photos: © Francis Wolff/Mosaic Images 

https://www.mosaicrecordsimages.com/

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
A Caddy for Daddy	Hank Mobley	December 18 1965
The Morning After	Hank Mobley	December 18 1965
Side Two
Venus Di Mildew	Wayne Shorter	December 18 1965
Ace Deuce Trey	Hank Mobley	December 18 1965
3rd Time Around	Hank Mobley	December 18 1965

Liner Notes

ONE wet Friday evening in March 1966 I journeyed to the Far East of New York — Slugs’ to be specific — to hear Hank Mobley ploy with the Elvin Jones quartet. I should say I thought I was going to hear Hank because on that night much of the solo space was being taken up by the well-known American painter and part-time saxophonist, Larry Rivers. As a result Mobley did not choose to play on the numbers in which Rivers took part. I heard Hank only half (or less) of the amount of time to which I was entitled, and when he did play it seemed as if his heart wasn’t really in it. He was being blocked from really getting into something.

Fortunately when Mobley makes a Blue Note recording he is able to pick the musicians. A Caddy for Daddy is a case in point and another in the fine line of LPs he has turned out for this company. It is instructive, and eminently enjoyable, to trace Hank’s career through these recordings. His growth as a player is inextricably bound up with his development as a writer. Material dictates playing directions and Mobley has managed to find new combinations within the tradition of his chosen music to nurture his art. Perhaps this does not seem like a great accomplishment but in light of the many absurdities being carried on in the name of jazz these days it certainly merits recognition and praise.

This album is a slight departure for Mobley in that most of his recent LPs have been done with a quintet. Usually a trumpet has been the companion for his tenor in the front line as in Dippin’ (Blue Note 4209) where Lee Morgan’s horn filled the bill. Morgan’s mercurial magic is back to help fuel daoddy’s caddy and this time Hank also has the added horsepower of Curtis Fuller’s trombone. Curtis’ big sound fleshes Out the ensemble, thereby giving Mobley another tool with which to work. At different times in their careers, Morgan and Fuller were members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, as was Mobley. But it is more than this common experience that places these men in such close rapport.

Like Harold Mabern, the pianist on Mobley’s Dippin’, McCoy Tyner once played with the Jazztet but Tyner was in the first edition of that group. Then he shifted to John Coltrane’s quartet to begin a long association that only recently ended. He is now in the process of forming his own trio. He is as resourceful on accompanist as he is a soloist, an attribute that stands out more clearly away from the density of the Coltrane milieu.

Bob Cranshaw first came to our attention as a member of the Chicago-based MJT+3. In recent years he has been a busy freelance around New York, heard to great advantage with Sonny Rollins, and on several Blue Note sessions. Cranshaw has strength, fine disposition and ability to find good notes — traits that are necessary to help fulfill the demanding workhorse role of the bassist.

Wherever you look in the Blue Note catalogue you are likely to find the name of Billy Higgins, and with good reason. While swinging as hard as any drummer around, Higgins manages to be highly musical. His touch is Strong but never heavy, and from him emanates a spirit that echoes the joy of playing. In person you con see this but it can also be felt on record.

The “soul” number of the set is the infectious A Caddy for Daddy. Mobley and Fuller carry the melody while Morgan comments against them. Hank told Lee what he wanted and then Lee was on his own. No matter what kind of number Lee is playing he is always direct and vital. This is Hank’s version of rock ‘n roll, which is much more musical than that idiom usually is without forgetting about its particular rhythmic excitement. Tyner’s modern conception precludes the kind of repetition that r&r generates. Mobley thought of the people that populate Minton’s these days when he wrote his number. “You know, the groove they’re into now,” he says, “hanging around, popping their fingers.” The solos by Morgan, Mobley, Ful!er and Tyner will hove you popping your fingers.

The Morning After is a minor-key, bluesy waltz but it’s not a blues per se. It is composed of two 16-bar segments; the first using two chords and the second utilizing four. This is one example of the ways that Mobley finds new streets to explore. His solo is full of power and pain, transmitting the zeitgeist without anarchy or nihilism. Morgan really digs in. Sometimes his notes seem as if they are rubber suction cups gripping all available surfaces for a strong instant before giving way to the next notes. Tyner demonstrates his full style of chording in his solo as he alternates this technique with a single line in the right hand. Fuller is not heard ¡n solo.

Curtis also does no improvising on Wayne Shorter’s Venus Di Mildew, the only non-Mobley original in the set. “Wayne and I are stablemates,” says Hank, referring to the fact that both men grew up in Newark, New Jersey. “Lee brought it in and I liked it,” he says of the tune. I don’t know if this Venus has no arms either, but she has feet — resilient ones on which she walks with spring and bounce. This is a number that you can visualize being done by the Messengers. The solos, like the song, swing straight ahead.

Another illustration of Hank’s exploratory construction is Ace Deuce Trey which is built on two chords, a flatted fifth and a major seventh. The first chord is A flat and the second A natural. The bridge is an extended “Rhythm” pattern that makes use of the flatted fifth and an augmented eleventh. This tune is a major that sounds like a minor. It is a bright sound, different and fresh. The solos that this construction elicits from Mobley, Morgan, Fuller and Tyner demonstrate how inspiration can come from investigations without throwing form out the window. Hank’s solo is particularly rich in ideas.

3rd Time Around alternates between o three-chord vamp in 3/5 and a whole tone scale in 4/4. It is a swift swinger whose suspended section seems to catapult the soloists into orbit when the meter shifts into 4/4. Mobley and Morgan fly, and Fuller responds with a fat-toned effort that is his best of the dote. Tyner’s facile fingers negotiate the pattern, which is not the easiest to play, in effectively intricate fashion. Then Mobley and Higgins exchange thoughts briefly before the theme comes in for the second time around.

Hank thinks he developed quite a bit when he was in the Miles Davis quintet. “People are always talking about how he leaves the stand and all that,” says Mobley, “but Miles is always listening, even when he’s at the bar.” Hank is always listening, too. The tangible, positive results are here to be heard. Some of them are very subtle but are well worth repealed listenings.

A Caddy for Daddy? This man deserves a Mercedes!

— IRA GITLER

Cover Photo and Design by REID MILES
Recording by RUDY VAN GELDER