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

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.
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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!

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

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