Dab Of This And That – Hank Mobley

A bouncy medium swinger with that classic Hank Mobley sound. It's 16 measures long, with a blues-like form but going back to the IV chord in the ninth measure instead of directly to the V. The melody repeats a relatively simple riff but with a hip rhythmic snap. Our lead sheets show detailed articulations including "scoops" and "fall-offs."

There's a rhythm section vamp intro, shown in our rhythm section part; it's also used as an interlude before the first soloist. After the last solo, the intro returns to set up the out head. On the recording the rhythm section vamps and fades on the intro as an ending; our lead sheets show a shorter coda (see Don Sickler's note below). Also included in our lead sheets but not on the recording are optional two-horn harmonies— the top two notes of the piano voicings— for the second half of the interlude and coda.

Don Sickler: "I have had the honor of getting to perform A Dab Of This And That with all three of Hank's original rhythm section members over the years: with Cedar Walton and Ron Carter together on a couple of my Hank Mobley Festivals at the Jazz Standard in NYC, and a couple of times with Billy Higgins in a sextet format on my week with him for the 60th anniversary of Blue Note Records.

For all of these performances, I wanted to have a definite ending (the record fades out on a rhythm section vamp) so for quintet performances for the Mobley Festival, I added the horns in harmony for the coda and created an ending chord.
I also expanded Hank's interlude. Instead of using it just once at the end of the melody as the set up for Hank's solo on the recording, I would often like to use it as an interlude to set up the next soloist, also adding the horns in the last four measures. That's why I added the [1] so it was easy for me to cue. With our editions, you can either perform it my way, or you can do it the way Hank recorded it, simply using his eight-measure rhythm section intro as the interlude into the first soloist, and again after the last soloist (the D.C.), play the melody, and the rhythm section vamps and fades out on it. For our editions, I've also kept the melody as Hank recorded it, a 16-measure, once only melody. It's such a catchy melody, I'd sometimes also repeat it in performances before solos. Have fun experimenting with it yourself."