Hank Mobley – Curtain Call (Blue Note / Tone Poet)

180-gram LP

Mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original master tape

Plated and pressed at RTI

The Blue Note Tone Poet Series was born out of Blue Note President Don Was’ admiration for the exceptional audiophile Blue Note LP reissues presented by Music Matters. Was brought Joe Harley (from Music Matters), a.k.a. the “Tone Poet,” on board to curate and supervise a series of reissues from the Blue Note family of labels.

It’s a sign of the sheer volume of top-notch hard bop that Blue Note was recording in the 1950s-60s that a supremely swinging date like Hank Mobley’s 1957 album Curtain Call would sit in the vaults unreleased until 1984. Mobley himself was in the middle of a particularly prolific streak that year with the tenor saxophonist recording six sessions for Blue Note in 1957 alone. This highly-enjoyable six-song set includes four Mobley originals including the extended opener “Don’t Get To Hip,” the hard-charging title track, and the bright swing of “The Mobe” along with two standards (“Deep In A Dream” and “My Reverie”) performed by a quintet with Mobley joined by Kenny Dorham on trumpet, Sonny Clark on piano, Jimmy Rowser on bass, and Art Taylor on drums.

Format : Vinyl Record

1 Lp