Saturday Feb 18th, 5pm – House of Hard Bop.
After the album Workout (1961), on which Hank Mobley collaborates with pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers (photo) and drummer “Philly” Joe Jones – staff of the famous Miles Davis Quintet – the same line-up is once again in Rudy Van Gelder’s studio . The result is titled Another Workout, and it is only 24 years later that it is generally appreciated as top quality Mobley – in its best period. Blue Note Records left the record on the shelf until 1985, which led to the greatest surprise in jazz critics: ‘incomprehensible’, ‘astonishing’, ‘disgraceful’, ‘unforgivable’. And Mobley himself would have liked to see it differently, after the success of Workout.
The first piece of Another Workout, Mobley’s hearty Out of Joe’s Bag, opens with an intro by “Philly Joe”. This is followed by the theme, the first eight bars of which form a “two-by-two” between quartet and drums. Let’s jump to about two thirds of the piece: there the drummer takes a long solo. These three form elements correspond 100% to those of the opening piece Workout, from the LP of the same name.
Things apparently went well. A real other Workout so. And now too…beautiful music.
After this opening, we change the mood with the ballad I Should Care:
I should care, I should go without sleeping,
I should care, I should go around weeping.
The lyrics of Hello, Young Lovers are also about love, but with a different emotional content, which can also be deduced from the instrumental version in both cases. And with Hank’s Other Soul we end up in a nice soul mood.
Variety enough in Another Workout – one of the highlights in Mobley’s discography!
But the programme starts with Three Coins in the Fountain from the Workout record, and concludes with two pieces from No Room for Squares from 1964. More about that in the next Newsletter.
This is part 3 of a four-part series.
Click for the newsletter about episode 1, and click for the broadcast.
Click for the newsletter about episode 2 and click for the broadcast.
House of Hardbop – Eric Ineke
