Liner Notes

Tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley had been recording for Blue Note for a decade when he made his excellent 1965 album A Caddy for Daddy featuring a first-class sextet with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. Blue Note stalwart Hank Mobley had been recording for the label for a full decade when the great tenor saxophonist entered Van Gelder Studio in 1965 to cut his excellent album A Caddy for Daddy . For the date, Mobley assembled a first-class sextet with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums, a remarkable line-up of musicians who were all very familiar to Blue Note listeners.

The band’s easy-going camaraderie elevates the music throughout this set of four Mobley originals plus Wayne Shorter’s “Venus Di Mildew.” Opening with the catchy title track, a classic mid-60s Blue Note groove number fueled by Higgins’ boogaloo beat, the album also includes lesser-known Mobley tunes like the churning minor waltz “The Morning After,” the hard-charging “Ace Deuce Trey” with its unexpected harmonic twists and turns, and the brightly swinging closer “3rd Time Around” which keeps the band on its toes throughout with its shifting time signatures.