Henry “Hank” Mobley was born July 7, 1930, in Eastman, Georgia. He was raised in Elizabeth New Jersey, near Newark. Several of Mobley’s family members played piano and/or church organ, and Mobley himself learned piano as a child. When he was 16 he became very ill and was homebound for several months. During this time period, Mobley’s uncle bought him a saxophone to allow Mobley to better occupy his time. This is when Mobley began to play the instrument and became further interested in pursuing a musical education. Hank wanted to attend school in Newark, but because he was not considered a resident in his area, he began self-teaching himself, working out of books at home.
A couple years later at age 19, he began playing with local groups.…show more content… and backed some of the era's top jazz stars. That led to a job with Max Roach, who hired both Mobley and Davis after performing with them; they all recorded together in early 1953, at one of the earliest sessions to feature Roach as a leader. Meanwhile, Mobley continued to gig around his home area, playing with the likes of Milt Jackson, Tadd Dameron, and J.J. Johnson, among others. He played two weeks in Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1953. Around this time, Mobley found himself taking part in what would be one of the earliest hard bop sessions alongside the members of Horace Silver and The Jazz Messengers. The strength of this group was met by the cohesiveness of the rhythm section. Each soloist brings very strong and succinct ideas with rhythmic precision and…show more content… Each one of his lines held a functional purpose, creating great vocabulary and rhythmic feel that musicians still return to today. In terms of his writing and his approach to improvising, Mobley was influenced by the blues and gospel music. This style became known as Hard Bop, or jazz that acted as a vehicle for improvisation whilst still remaining soulful, sophisticated, and complex in an organic context. Unlike bebop, the melodies of the tunes were relatively simple and were mostly taken at a medium swing feel and tempo. The solos would be open up, often spanning 4 or 5 choruses each. Cuts began moving from the typical 3-4 minute bebop tune to the 9-10-minute hard bop
