Hank Mobley

A Slice of the Top is an octet session that Hank Mobley recorded for Blue Note in March 1966, with arrangements by Duke Pearson. It stayed in the vaults for thirteen years and was first released in 1979 in the LT series, as LT-995. Mobley took Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool as his model, and the euphonium and tuba in the front line give it a sound apart in his catalogue.

Mobley asked Pearson to arrange four of his originals and the standard There's a Lull in My Life for a larger group. Pearson added Kiane Zawadi's euphonium and Howard Johnson's tuba. The rest of the band has Lee Morgan on trumpet, James Spaulding on alto saxophone, McCoy Tyner on piano and Billy Higgins on drums. The session took place on 18 March 1966 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs.

The low brass gives the ensemble passages a dark, rounded floor, and Pearson voices the five horns so that the themes move as blocks of colour rather than unison lines. Against that backdrop Mobley's tenor floats with its familiar lyricism. Hank's Other Bag opens the record and shows the method at once: a brisk ensemble theme, then open space for the soloists. A Touch of Blue and the title track, which closes the album, are the best examples of how the arrangements frame the soloists without crowding them.

The 1979 sleeve, with notes by John Litweiler, mistakenly credited Reggie Workman on bass; the bassist is in fact Bob Cranshaw. In his AllMusic review Scott Yanow singled out the euphonium and tuba for the colour they add to the session.

This stereo Tone Poet edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from the original analogue master tapes. It is pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.