“Though a journeyman rather than any kind of ground-breaking voice, he was more influential than jazz histories have often allowed.”[1]
Defined the hard bop tenor sound
“...Mobley was a king in the world of hard-bop saxophone.”[2]
“...an inventor of hard bop, he is second only to Rollins in defining, the idiom's characteristic tenor style.”[3]
“Mobley was a five-tool tenor saxophonist: He had killer chops. He had a silky tone. He could tell the hell out of a story. He was a smokin' composer. And he could swing into the ground. Five tools. Six, if you count the fact that he looked great on a record cover.”[4]
[1]Richard Cook, Blue Note Records: The Biography (Boston: Justin, Charles & Co., 2001), 146.
[2]John Goldsby, “Woodshed: Moving—Jazz Concepts: Doug Watkins: The Detroit Bounce,” Bass Player, April 2003, 84.
[3]John Litweiler, “Hank Mobley: The Integrity of the Artist—the Soul of the Man,” Downbeat, 1973.
[4]Alan Goldsher, Hard Bop Academy: The Sidemen of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2002.
