Hank Mobley – A Caddy For Daddy: The Hard Bop Session Lost

What You Need to Know Right Now

Why does A Caddy For Daddy feel like a rediscovery even though it's a 1965 Blue Note session?

Because it was shelved for two years and released in 1967 as the hard bop era was already fading. By the time it hit stores, Coltrane's free explorations and the Bitches Brew sessions were rewriting the jazz map. But this record-cut on December 18, 1965, at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey-captures a different moment entirely. It's Mobley leading a seven-piece ensemble through his own compositions plus a Wayne Shorter tune, and the result is a clinic in melodic invention and rhythmic pocket. The lineup alone tells the story: Lee Morgan on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, McCoy Tyner on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. These aren't sidemen. They're architects of the Blue Note sound. The Discogs community has spoken too: 3,561 collectors own a copy, 271 want one, and the album holds a 4.73/5 rating from 311 votes. That's not hype. That's consensus.

What makes the Tone Poet reissue the best way to hear A Caddy For Daddy today?

Kevin Gray's all-analog mastering from the original tapes. This isn't a digital stopover or a simulation-it's a direct line from Rudy Van Gelder's 1965 microphone placement to your turntable. Gray, working under the supervision of Joe Harley for the Tone Poet series, treated this session with the reverence it deserves. The result is a pressing that captures the warmth of Mobley's tenor, the brass shimmer of Morgan and Fuller, and the woody resonance of Cranshaw's bass without adding gloss or compression. The current market price sits at $21.98 on Discogs, which is a steal when you consider what an original Blue Note 84230 would cost you-if you could even find a clean one. This is the pressing to own, not just because it sounds good, but because it sounds right.

Quick Stats

Tracklist & Spotify Anchor

Side A

• A1. A Caddy For Daddy (9:24)
• A2. The Morning After (9:45)

Side B

• B1. Venus Di Mildew (7:13)
• B2. Ace Deuce Trey (7:15)
• B3. 3rd Time Around (6:14)

Start the stream. Let the atmosphere settle before we look at the wax.

The Needle Drop: Opening the Jacket

The sleeve feels substantial in your hands. Reid Miles' cover photo-a moody, shadowed shot by Francis Wolff-sets the tone before you even slide the vinyl out. It's got that Blue Note weight, that sense of occasion. You pull the record from the inner sleeve and hold it up to the light. The grooves are clean, the pressing is quiet, and there's that familiar Blue Note heft-180 grams of vinyl that means business.

You cue the first track. "A Caddy For Daddy." The tempo settles around 140 BPM-medium swing, not rushed. Mobley's tenor enters with a melody that loops back on itself, hinting at blues phrasing but never fully committing. It's playful but not frivolous. Lee Morgan's trumpet answers, and suddenly you're in the middle of a conversation between horns that don't need words. The rhythm section-Tyner, Cranshaw, Higgins-locks in with the kind of telepathy that only comes from musicians who've been in the same rooms, on the same stages, cutting the same grooves for years.

This is a late-night record. Pour something smoky-peaty Scotch, maybe a rye. The tempo won't rush you. The mood won't demand your attention in a loud way. It just settles into the room and waits for you to notice how good it is.

The Nerd Sheet: Why This Session Matters

Let's talk numbers. The Discogs master release page shows 3,561 collectors with this album in their collections and 271 actively hunting for it. That's a healthy 13:1 ratio-not a "grail" situation, but not bargain-bin fodder either. The 4.73/5 community rating from 311 votes tells you this is a record that rewards repeated listening. People don't rate albums this high unless they keep coming back.

Now let's look at the session synergy. December 18, 1965. Van Gelder Studios. Mobley, Morgan, Fuller, Tyner, Cranshaw, Higgins. If you cross-reference JazzDiscography.com, you'll find that Tyner and Higgins had already locked into a rhythmic language through their work with Coltrane's classic quartet. Cranshaw was the go-to bassist for hard bop sessions throughout the mid-'60s, appearing on dozens of Blue Note dates. Morgan and Fuller? They'd been running through Blakey's Jazz Messengers together, which means the frontline interplay on this record isn't just rehearsed-it's lived-in.

The Wikipedia entry for A Caddy For Daddy confirms what collectors already know: this session was recorded in 1965 but shelved until 1967. Blue Note was sitting on a backlog of material, and by the time this hit the market, the label was already shifting toward soul-jazz and the proto-fusion experiments that would define the late '60s. That context matters. This isn't a record that was trying to be ahead of its time. It was simply great hard bop that got caught in a release queue.

The listening lineage is rich. Wayne Shorter's "3rd Time Around" on Side B connects directly to his work with Miles Davis' second great quintet-Shorter was moonlighting between his own sessions and the E.S.P./Miles Smiles era. That harmonic ambiguity, that rhythmic elasticity? You can hear echoes of it in everything from Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi period to the M-Base movement of the '90s. Musicians love this tune because it leaves space. The changes don't dictate-they suggest.

And then there's "The Morning After," the nine-and-a-half-minute centerpiece of Side A. It's a blues, but not a straight twelve-bar. Mobley stretches the form just enough to keep it interesting, and the interplay between Morgan's bright, brassy attack and Fuller's warmer trombone voicings creates a call-and-response that feels spontaneous even though you know they rehearsed it. That's the magic of hard bop-the illusion of effortlessness.

The Educational Deep Dive: Inside the Session

Who was in the room? Let's run the roster.

Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone. By December 1965, Mobley had already cemented his reputation as the "middleweight champion" of Blue Note-not as aggressive as Coltrane, not as laid-back as Stan Getz, but somewhere in that melodic pocket where swing and lyricism intersect. This session finds him in full command of his voice, leading his own date and writing four of the five tunes.

Lee Morgan on trumpet. Fresh off The Sidewinder's commercial success, Morgan was one of the most in-demand hornmen at Blue Note. His tone here is crisp, his phrasing economical. He doesn't showboat. He serves the tunes.

Curtis Fuller on trombone. Fuller's warm, burnished sound balances Morgan's brightness. The frontline voicings on this record-trumpet, tenor, trombone-create a harmonic richness that feels like classic big-band writing shrunk down to quintet size.

McCoy Tyner on piano. This is Tyner between his "Impressions" era with Coltrane and the modal explorations he'd pursue on his own Impulse dates. His comping here is modal but never abstract. He anchors the harmonies without overstaying his welcome.

Bob Cranshaw on bass. Cranshaw was the glue on countless Blue Note sessions. His tone is round, his time is rock-solid, and he knows when to walk and when to lay back.

Billy Higgins on drums. Higgins' ride cymbal work is textbook hard bop-light, propulsive, never overpowering. He's the heartbeat of every track.

The happy accident? There isn't one. This is a professional session, executed with precision. But the real story is in the timing. Alfred Lion produced this date knowing that hard bop was already being eclipsed by free jazz and soul-jazz crossovers. He shelved it, not because it was bad, but because Blue Note's release schedule was packed. By the time it came out in 1967, the moment had shifted. And yet the music hasn't aged a day.

You can grab this exact pressing-Kevin Gray's AAA Tone Poet reissue-right here: Hank Mobley - A Caddy For Daddy at Miles Waxey.

The Technical Scrutiny: What to Look For

Let's talk about the wax. The Tone Poet series is known for one thing above all else: all-analog mastering from original tapes. Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio handled the lacquer cutting for this reissue, and if you know Gray's work-his cuts for Speakers Corner, Analogue Productions, and Music Matters-you know what that means. No digital intermediate. No EQ trickery. Just clean signal path from tape to lathe to pressing plant.

The deadwax on the Tone Poet pressing will show Gray's signature initials (KG) and the Cohearent stamp. This is how you verify authenticity. If you're buying secondhand, ask for deadwax photos. Every Tone Poet pressing is labeled clearly with the series branding, so counterfeits are rare-but it never hurts to check.

Now let's talk sound. The original Blue Note 84230 pressing from 1967 was mastered by Rudy Van Gelder and pressed at Plastylite. If you're lucky enough to find an original with the "Ear" logo (Plastylite's mark), expect to pay upwards of $100 for a clean copy-and that's if it's truly VG+ or better. Most originals at that price point will have surface noise, ringwear, or spindle marks. The Tone Poet reissue bypasses all of that. It's dead quiet, the soundstage is wide, and the transient snap on Higgins' snare hits feels immediate without being harsh.

The frequency response is balanced. Mobley's tenor sits in the center, warm and woody. Morgan's trumpet has air and presence without piercing. Tyner's piano has weight-those left-hand chords feel like you can count the hammers hitting the strings. Cranshaw's bass has resonance, not boom. This is Van Gelder's engineering filtered through Gray's mastering philosophy: transparency, not enhancement.

What's the best pairing for this record? Late evening, lights low, something to sip. The tempo is steady but never hurried. It's contemplative without being slow. This is a record for the time between dinner and sleep, when the day is done but you're not ready to turn everything off yet. It's music that rewards attention but doesn't punish distraction.

Context & Afterlife

Hank Mobley was born on July 7, 1930, in Eastman, Georgia, and grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He came up through the bebop era, playing with Dizzy Gillespie and Max Roach before landing his first Blue Note sessions in the mid-'50s. By the time A Caddy For Daddy was recorded, he'd already established himself as a prolific composer and a session anchor for the label. He recorded prolifically through the '60s, but his career slowed in the '70s due to health issues and shifting jazz trends. Mobley died on May 30, 1986, at the age of 55 from pneumonia. His legacy, though, is secure-he's one of the unsung architects of hard bop, a tenor voice that bridged the gap between the bop era and the modal experiments of the '60s.

The cultural afterlife of this record is quieter than some of Mobley's other sessions. It didn't get sampled heavily by hip-hop producers the way Soul Station or No Room For Squares did. But among jazz musicians, tunes like "3rd Time Around" and "A Caddy For Daddy" remain touchstones-pieces that get pulled out at jam sessions when someone wants to hear how a melody can breathe inside a groove without forcing it.

Collector's Corner: The Final Audit

So what's the move? If you're chasing the original 1967 Blue Note pressing, expect to pay triple digits for a clean copy-and even then, you're gambling on surface noise and wear. The Tone Poet reissue gives you 95% of the sonic experience for a fraction of the cost, with the added benefit of Kevin Gray's AAA mastering and a dead-quiet pressing. At $21.98 median market price (and often available new for under $30), this is one of the best bangs for your buck in the entire Tone Poet series.

If you're new to Mobley, this is a great entry point. It's got the classic Blue Note lineup, the Van Gelder sound, and compositions that show Mobley's melodic instincts without overwhelming you with complexity. If you're already deep into hard bop, this belongs next to your copies of Soul Station, The Turnaround, and Workout.

The Tone Poet reissue is in stock at Miles Waxey right now. It's pressed on 180-gram vinyl, mastered by Kevin Gray, supervised by Joe Harley, and packaged with the original Reid Miles artwork. This is the pressing to own.

Final Thought

A Caddy For Daddy isn't a lost masterpiece or a hidden grail. It's something better: a solid, deeply musical hard bop session that got overlooked when it came out and quietly built a reputation over the decades. The Discogs ratings don't lie. The session credits speak for themselves. And Kevin Gray's mastering ensures that this music sounds as good today as it did in Van Gelder's studio in 1965.

Does your copy have the KG stamp in the deadwax? Have you compared the Tone Poet to an original pressing? Drop your notes in the comments. And if you don't own this one yet, fix that.