BST 84288

Hank Mobley - Reach Out!

Released - November 1968

Recording and Session Information

Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, January 19, 1968
Woody Shaw, trumpet, flugelhorn; Hank Mobley, tenor sax; Lamont Johnson, piano; George Benson, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.

2027 tk.6 Up, Over And Out
2028 tk.8 Lookin' East
2029 tk.9 Goin' Out Of My Head
2030 tk.12 Beverly
2031 tk.15 Good Pickin's
2032 tk.19 Reach Out I'll Be There

Session Photos

Photos: Francis Wolff

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Reach Out (I'll Be There)	Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland	January 19 1968
Up, Over and Out	Hank Mobley	January 19 1968
Lookin' East	Hank Mobley	January 19 1968
Side Two
Goin' Out of My Head	Teddy Randazzo, Bob Weinstein	January 19 1968
Good Pickin's	Hank Mobley	January 19 1968
Beverly	LaMont Johnson	January 19 1968

Liner Notes

Hank Mobley describes himself as an introvert, but his playing is assertively, pridefully individual. Having found his own way of expression, he keeps developing as his own man. He is also continually concerned with getting through to others, with making clear in his music what he feels. Always he is attuned to what's happening where he is. As he told Valerie Wilmer in Melody Maker: "Sometimes you'll see me look at the audience and shade my eyes. I always like to see who's in there ... I always want to know what kind of people are they? Plus the fellows in the band. You have to get the feeling of them and the waiters and waitresses, too. Over the years you get to notice things like that and I guess that's why I'm always, as you say, a leader. It's not that I want to be, to have my name up front or anything. It's just that I'm more aware."

It's that acute awareness of the ambiance of the particular situation — the other musicians, the studio — which accounts, I expect, for the cohesion in this recording. It's all together. Also clear here are Hank's roots. Speaking of John Coltrane, Hank has said: "Trane had roots from bottom to top, he always had a core something to stem from." And so does Hank. At the very start Of "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," a rock hit, there is a firm, blues-colored jazz foundation, propelled by George Benson. Hank starts building and is, as he shows here, a "speaking" kind of player. He's always telling a story. And complementing his narrative flow and clarity on this track is the incisive Woody Shaw, the resilient Lamont Johnson, and a rhythm section that sounds as if it's been in alliance for years. Note particularly the continual stimulation and adroit punctuation supplied by Billy Higgins.

"Up, Over, and Out" is one of Hank's lithe, melodically buoyant originals. Higgins adapts to the brisker mood with characteristic confidence and that sensitized awareness Of what best fits each soloist. I would suggest, incidentally, that you listen more than once to this track just for Billy alone and you'll understand why he is regarded with so much respect by so many other drummers in jazz. After Woody's crisp solo, Hank digs into the tune to be followed by George Benson's fluent, singing guitar. Benson gets a fullness and roundness of sound that makes for a particularly sensuous impact. Lamont Johnson brings yet another dimension to the piece until the concluding ensemble with Billy Higgins's crackling — and superbly-recorded — drum breaks.

"Lookin' East" is also by Hank. Its beat is ambling, its melody relaxing. Again Hank sounds like a man talking, speaking out of his own distinct experience. Dig, too, the energizing, jubilant, brass-proud sound of Woody Shaw and the virile mellowness of George Benson.

"Goin' Out Of My Head," another widely popular hit, illustrates a point made by Jackie McLean, a long-time friend and associate of Mobley. "Hank," Jackie emphasizes, "is one of the most lyrical tenor players in the history of iazz. And it's a lyricism that comes naturally out of the man." Certainly on this track Hank has a breadth, a sweep of lyrical ardor that makes this, I feel, one of his most satisfying, quintessentially personal performances on record. George Benson also fits persuasively into this expansively romantic groove. What also emerges from this performance is the easeful confidence of Mobley — a man who no longer has to prove himself to himself. He knows exactly who he is in the music, and what he wants to say.

"Good Pickin's," a nimble original by Hank, begins with a dialogue between George Benson and the horns that reminds me of some of the vintage Duke Ellington conversations in the 190s. And the piece as a whole has the kind of cleanly ordered structure that has become so characteristic of Mobley the leader. I must admit, incidentally, that I had not been fully aware of the scope of George Benson's expressivity until this album, and particularly, this track. "Good Pickin's," in addition, provides Woody Shaw with one of the most impressive solos in recent recordings. And Hank himself takes an authoritative solo, the quality of solo that emphasizes he has long since reached that stage where his sound and style are immediately, convincingly identifiable.

The final "Beverly" is by Lamont Johnson, a pianist whom Jackie Mclean has helped develop into a substantial jazzman. His stately theme here turns out to be especially well wrought for Hank Mobley's ruminative romanticism as Hank reveals another facet of his lyricism. There is a formidably disciplined, powerful statement by George Benson, and Woody Shaw also finds the song entirely consonant with his improvisational bent.

"The thing about Hank," Jackie Mclean said in our conversation about the perdurable Mobley, "is that everything he does is so organically melodic. And harmonically, the man is so astute. In terms of playing on the chord changes, you can't get any hipper than Hank."

In that interview with Valerie Wilmer, Hank compared the Way his style has developed to the process of shopping: "It's like a grocery store, you know. We all go there and buy the same products, but some people buy more than others. And then they cook them in different ways."

What Hank buys now comes from years Of tasting and distilling. And being in command of all his ingredients, he has long since learned to be a masterful cook.

— Nat Hentoff

RVG CD Reissue Liner Notes

A NEW LOOK AT REACH OUT!

1968 was an interesting time to be a working jazz musician, especially for those like the members of this sextet who were part of what might have been called the modern mainstream. On the one hand, the music press and many emerging musicians were consumed by the rule-breaking, politically and socially conscious avant-garde, which reflected the militancy and counter-cultural mood of the times. This free-jazz movement had been gaining momentum over the previous three years, with established labels such as Blue Note and Impulse! becoming involved in documenting its major figures, although the death of John Coltrane in the summer of 1967 signaled that the music's hold on its audience might grow tenuous. Some of the present musicians had already proven their ability to operate in these newer realms — Woody Shaw with Eric Dolphy and Larry Young, Lamont Johnson with Jackie McLean, Billy Higgins with Ornette Coleman, and Higgins and Bob Cranshaw in the Our Man in Jazz edition of Sonny Rollins's band.

On the other hand, and apropos for at least a third of the present music, the perpetual lure of popular success and the growing notion (post Bringing It All Back Home, Pet Sounds, Sergeant Pepper, etc.) that some rock and roll was worthy of consideration as art, had musicians thinking in a more commercial direction. If crossing over was the plan, there were two options. One could either come up with an original concept that had broad appeal or cover something that the mass audience already knew. Lee Morgan's "The Sidewinder," Horace Silver's "Song for My Father," and Cannonball Adderley's recording of Joe Zawinul's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" represent the former strategy, while Ramsey Lewis's "The In Crowd" is a prime example of the latter. Clearly, in choosing "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" and "Goin' Out of My Head" as the lead tracks on each side of the original LP, Blue Note and Hank Mobley chose the pop cover route.

The results speak for themselves, and none too convincingly to these ears. One problem is the material chosen. The title track, a major Motown hit for the Four Tops, had already drawn a few jazz interpretations (Pucho, Count Basie, Jack McDuff), but really does not offer an improviser much to work with. "Goin' Out of My Head" is better both melodically and harmonically, and a successful instrumental version cut in 1965 by Wes Montgomery (the champion from a sales perspective in pop covers by jazz musicians) had already induced Basie, Ramsey Lewis, Ella Fitzgerald, Les McCann, and Art Farmer, among others, to follow suit. At the root, however, the problem with the versions heard here is a lack of empathy for the material, most obviously in the case of Mobley and an uncommonly heavy-handed Higgins. A successful commercial jazz performance, of which Lou Donaldson's "Alligator Bogaloo" from the previous year is a perfect example, has to sound as committed as any other. Here, a comparison between "Reach Out" and "Goin' Out" with the remaining four performances suggests a gap in commitment.

George Benson, who has never had a problem with pop material, was part of the "Alligator Bogaloo" session, and appears here in what was the second of his five Blue Note sideman dates. This was a transitional period for the guitarist, who had completed his Columbia contract and was surfacing in a variety of unusual contexts. Three days before the present session, he had joined the Miles Davis Quintet on the track "Paraphernalia" (an early indication of Davis's turn toward the rock audience), and within the month he would explore the edgy terrain of Larry Young's Heaven on Earth and the soul/progressive mix of Lee Morgan's Taru. By the fall of '68, Benson had opted for the path of greater commercial appeal by hooking up with producer Creed Taylor. An album of Beatles tunes would follow a year later, though it was not until 1976 and the success of his album Breezin' with its hit "This Masquerade" (where he sings as well as plays) that Benson would become a true pop superstar. But then crossing over is hard to do.

In the end, Reach Out! is valuable when the band is playing Mobley's swinging originals and Johnson 's attractive "Beverly." Woody Shaw, a fine choice for front-line partner, displays a harmonic daring well-suited to the leader (they would team again on Mobley's final Blue Note album, Thinking of Home); Benson is incisive and lyrical whatever the mood; and Higgins is his usual invigorating self on the non-covers. The leader is far more involved on the originals, which makes the album a must for Mobley fans despite the covers, which did not make a ripple in the popular consciousness. When next heard on record, Mobley was in France, doing his own thing exclusively on his next Blue Note album, The Flip, and sitting in with avant-icon Archie Shepp on a couple of BYG/Actuel discs.

- Bob Blumenthal, 2005