Savoy Records · in the Kissa Kissa racks

Jazz Message #2

Hank Mobley

Recorded	Jul 23 & Nov 7, 1956
Label	Savoy Records
Catalog	MG-12092
Released	1956
Personnel	8 credited players
Discogs	master 535432

The record

Two trumpet-and-tenor frontlines split the date, with Byrd and Morgan trading spots alongside a rhythm section that swaps Hank Jones and Barry Harris on piano, Kenny Clarke and Art Taylor on drums. Mobley's tone stays the constant -- lean, dark-hued hard bop from a tenor man who never got the marquee billing his consistency deserved.

Session personnel

Doug Watkins — bass
Art Taylor — drums
Kenny Clarke — drums
Barry Harris — piano
Hank Jones — piano
Hank Mobley — tenor saxophone
Donald Byrd — trumpet
Lee Morgan — trumpet

Contemporary reception

No period review located yet. The vintage-press pipeline searches DownBeat, Cash Box, and Billboard for this session.

Pressings

The earliest pressing on file here is the 1956 US Savoy mono, MG-12092, with a deep groove and the RVG stamp -- the only original-era listing we hold, and the copy that matters. Everything after it is Japanese: limited mono reissues as 220R-50504 in 1990 and KIJJ-3 in 1991. There is also an undated US oxblood-label reissue of MG-12092 in a laminated sleeve. No modern audiophile cut appears in our data.

1956	Savoy Records · MG-12092 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono earliest on file · deep groove; RVG stamp
1990	Savoy Records · 220R-50504 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Mono
1990	Savoy Records · 220R-50504 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Promo, Reissue, Mono
1991	Savoy Records · KIJJ-3 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Mono
2005	Savoy Jazz · COCB-53418 — CD, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Mono
2025	Craft Recordings — MONO
—	Savoy Records · MG-12092 — Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Mono, Oxblood · laminated sleeve