A Jazzy Night with Music from Blue, Wynton and Hank and friends!!
So tonight I turned the sound down on the Phillies game and turned up the stereo and spent a jazzy Saturday night listening to albums from Blue Mitchell, Wynton Kelly, and Hank Mobley. Of the three Hank Mobley is the musician I know the least about, but his album Soul Station was my favorite of the evening. The link between the three albums is the piano artistry of Wynton Kelly. I first heard Blue Mitchell’s trumpet when he played on two John Mayall albums in the early 70s. The album I listened to tonight was Blue’s Moods released in 1960. The album features Blue surrounded by the piano of Wynton Kelly, the bass of Sam Jones and Ray Brooks on drums. The quartet makes their way through four standards, Ronnell Bright’s “Sweet Pumpkin,” and the obscure “Avars,” and two originals. The album has a four star (out of five) editors rating at AllMusic and I whole-heartily agree! Next up was a Wynton Kelly album Kelly Blue on this album released in 1959, Wynton was surrounded by his former Miles Davis band mates, Paul Chambers on bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums, clarinetist Nate Adderly, Bobby Jasper on flute and Benny Colson on tenor saxophone, The album is composed of three Kelly originals and four familiar standards (including “Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise” and “Willow Weep for Me”) As always Kelly’s piano is great and his band mates are no slouches! The album has an editor’s rating of 4 1/2 stars…
