Tenor-saxophonist Hank Mobley's smooth tone and hard-swinging style helped define the Blue Note sound. He was considered such a valuable musician by Alfred Lion that Mobley led 25 Blue Note albums during 1955-70, also appearing as a sideman on many others. Part of the Philadelphia jazz scene by the late 1940s, Mobley moved up North in 1951 and worked with Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, and most significantly the original versions of the Jazz Messengers and the Horace Silver Quintet. He was also in the Miles Davis Quintet in 1961. However he will always be best remembered for his string of brilliant Blue Note recordings of which 1960's Roll Call stands at the top. Mobley is heard at his most fiery, matching wits with the young upstart Freddie Hubbard, who was already an incendiary force. Such song titles as "My Groove, Your Move" and "A Baptist Beat" lets one know that Mobley's originals are full of their brand of soul, and the roaring drum rolls of Art Blakey often set the entire session on fire.
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