Happy B-Day Parabens / Hank Mobley – A Caddy for Daddy (1966)

Photobucket
Today, July 7, Flabbergasted Vibes is officially two years old! I write “officially” because it was actually migrated from a blog I had started on MySpace (who reads blogs on MySpace anyway?), and also I did not really put much thought into the posts for the first few months. It was just a way to share some enthusiasm about music for some of my friends who I often don’t get to see, which in a more broad sense it still is. So, a toast to one more year of sonic explorations and fickle musings at Flabbergasted Vibes!! Also, the age is associated with the English phrase of “the Terrible Twos”, a reference to the time when toddlers start to throw fits and scream a lot. So, when I consulted both the I-Ching and one of my Tarot decks about this, I received the divination that I will either be posting more cranky commentary, or crankier music, this year. Be forewarned.
======================================

Normally a birthday would entail a day off for me, at least metaphorically in the sense of not working too much and-or slacking off more than usual. But since today is also Hank Mobley’s birthday, I decided to actually do a post anyway. (It is also Joe Zawinul´s birthday – two Miles Davis sidemen born on July 7! – but I happen to have this Mobley record sitting on the hard drive at the convenient moment). So why not give yourself a Cadillac on Flabbergasted Vibes’ birthday with this vintage Blue Note album featuring a ridiculous by wonderful album cover and silly title!

Photobucket

Hank Mobley
A Caddy for Daddy
Released 1966 on Blue Note (BT-ST84230)
[Mono version released in 1965..]
This reissue – 2009 Analog Productions, SACD format

1 A Caddy For Daddy 9:15

2 The Morning After 9:35

3 Venus Di Mildew 7:05

4 Ace Deuce Trey 7:10

5 3rd Time Around 6:10

All compositions by Hank Mobley except Track 3 by Wayne Shorter.

Bass – Bob Cranshaw
Drums – Billy Higgins
Piano – McCoy Tyner
Saxophone [Tenor] – Hank Mobley
Trombone – Curtis Fuller
Trumpet – Lee Morgan

Hank Mobley, like a lot of Blue Note`s roster, was cranking out albums at an incredible pace in the mid-60s. This is not actually one of my favorites — I don´t think it is anywhere near as good as “The Turnaround” also from 1965.

The first track, A Caddy for Daddy, is a half-hearted attempt at soul jazz which leaves me cold. The band sounds tired and so do the arrangements. I am no jazz scholar, but I would not be surprised if this cut was an attempt to recreat Lee Morgan’s success with The Sidewinder, one of the early soul-jazz “hits”. As you can see above, Morgan is on this session as are Higgins and Cranshaw who also played on that classic tune. The album improves quickly with “The Morning After” (what is it with the oddball titles on this disc?) which is easily my favorite piece of music here. A nice surprise on this session is the expansion of Mobley’s band to a sextet, featuring the incomparable Curtis Fuller on the trombone, always a good thing. McCoy Tyner does not get a chance to shine on record the way I would have liked.

Sorry for not writing more but it should really be the blog’s day off anyway, so this is all you get from me today. Oh, and this Analog Productions reissue sounds way better than any of the RVG remasters of Mobley’s stuff, although it does use the stereo master tapes rather than the mono.

Hank Mobley – A Caddy for Daddy (1966) in 320kbs em pee tree

Hank Mobley – A Caddy for Daddy (1966) in FLAC LOSSLESS format

Liked it? Take a second to support Dr. Vibes on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!
Bookmark the permalink.

0 Comments

  1. Regarding BN mono versus stereo masters:

    According to AcousTech, famous for their audiophile BN vinyl edition, there are no true mono masters for any BN title recorded after October 30, 1958! Every RVG session after that date was recorded in stereo only. The mono masters were actually created by folding down the stereo master tape.
    Funny that BN monos are much more desired than stereos by collectors.

  2. Happy Birthday,

    I really enjoy your Flabbergasted Vibes. It really is like a music blog should be. With a lot of texts of your own and not just a copy of some AMG stuff. And it's always interesting (even if I don't read it all).

    Great job.
    I must add some links on my own blog and I definitely put yours among them…
    On my blog, there's no links for music to download, just my own writings about music (a lot of stuff from Brasil) and some videos :

    http://lelixirdudrfunkathus.blogspot.com/

    keep getting busy at it.

  3. Congratulations about the 2 year mark! I know how much work you put into this, and it is appreciated. Haven't heard this record but did enjoy his playing in Someday My Prince Will Come with Miles and also the great album "Workout". Somebody stole that one from me when they broke into my car in a dark night after a hurricane when there were no lights and the thieves were on the prowl. I never replaced it, but now you are making me wonder…
    Look forward to listening to this record. And what a great cover, those Blue Note guys certainly knew what they were doing.

  4. Happy Birthday!

  5. The password: vibes

    Thanx for the up!

  6. Many thanks for the Caddy For Daddy Analogue Productions! I stumbled across your blog after a Google search for this CD (tried grabbing it on a certain famous sharing blog but one of the DL links was dead). I shall visit again! Cheers

  7. Indeed, a silly title, but what a splendid cover – and a very nice album.
    Thanks for this.
    AD

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *