Billboard : 05/27/1957
Score of 74

Mobley‘s adventurous modern tenor has a definite message that has to reach more and more buyers. This smart-looking package will sell on sight to those who have already been initiated, but the Mobley market still has a long way to develop before it can quality as sure-shot merchandise. Also present is K. Dorham on trumpet.

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Down Beat : 07/11/1957
Dom Cerulli : 3.5 stars

There are times when Kenny Dorham, while blowing, seems to be giving reluctantly of himself, his phrases are that spare and his tone is that distilled. A good example are his choruses on I Should Care, which are played masterfully and lyrically, but in this frame of restraint which makes the heights he attains that much more impressive.

Mobley is his flowing, tasty self, although the inspired blowing that has highlighted recent in-person shots is missing in spots here. Still, he is inventive on The Latest and Crazeology, both of which stem from I Got Rhythm and are the more interesting because of the variety of development.

Bishop on Latest, gets taken up with Autumn Nocturne, and works it charmingly into several spots on his Bud-oriented solo. On the jumped-tempo Things I Love, listen to Bishop practically soloing as he comps in the background.

On Message, Dorham is again forceful in his manner and gets off his most exciting solo.

All considered, a good blowing date; but, considering the persons on hand, not really all it could have been.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

When the name Messengers is mentioned it brings to mind several different groups, the number of them depending on your range of listening experience. Some of you may remember the 17-piece band that Art Blakey led in the mid-Forties around metropolitan New York; others have heard the records that Blakey made in the same period with an octet drawn from the large band but the Messengers most familiar to the majority of you was the group which Blakey formed in reviving the group name in 1955. The personnel of the Messengers has shifted a great deal since the middle of 1956 but the quintet which really established the name was the one which included Horace Silver, Doug Watkins, Kenny Dorham and Hank Mobley.

In this album, Prestige has chosen to reunite the pair that carried the ball so effectively in what was the best of the Messenger groups. Of course, Blakey’s dynamic drumming and Silver’s playing arid writing were huge factors in the success of the group but the “voices” of Mobley and Dorham carried the message in their unison sound and they, along with Silver, were the featured soloists.

Mobley has been a constantly improving saxophonist due to his talent but perhaps more importantly because of his attitude. He is a model of today’s intelligent, serious young jazz musician. His contributions in carrying on the rich tradition of Charlie Parker place him among today’s top tenormen.

Dorham has been in jazz longer than Mobley and yet did not begin to receive his deserved recognition until he helped establish the popularity of the Messengers. One of the distinctive stylists on his instrument, Kenny, whom I rate among the five best jazz trumpeters playing today, has contributed much to modern trumpet playing in adding his personal approach to the essence of the Navarro out of Gillespie style.

The rhythm section on this date also has its ties with the Messengers. The bassist is Doug Watkins, a steady, welding, if unobtrusive force in the Messenger group. At the piano is another Messenger alumnus, Walter Bishop. Underappreciated and often overlooked, he was one of the earliest disciples of Bud Powell and in the mid-Forties was first heard by a wider audience on the Messenger octet recordings. (Kenny Dorham was also on these.) Best known for his work with Charlie Parker in the Fifties, Bish has held day jobs throughout much of the Fifties, appearing only intermittently in clubs. This is his first record date in quite a while and it’s nice to hear his version of the Powell idiom once again.

Art Taylor, being a drummer, has never played with the Messengers but is stylistically descendent from Blakey (Roach and Clarke) and completely within the spirit of the four other members of the group, having played with them on numerous occasions.

Mobley’s Second Message post-dates Mobley’s Message (Prestige LP 7061) by one week and consists of originals and ballads.

The Latest is a “rhythm” pattern with solos by Hank, Kenny and Bish with exchanges of “fours” among the horns and Art Taylor.

The blues of the date is Xlento. a minor strain with solos by the same three and exchanges between Hank and Kenny.

Message From The Border by Hank, as are the first two, is a Latinate opus, which in addition to the regular solos, features Kenny in front of a pianoless rhythm that alternates between Latin and straight 4/4. Art Taylor has a solo workout too.

Crazeology is another in the series of tunes, either written by or associated with Charlie Parker, that have been recorded on various Prestige sessions during the course of the 12 inch LP series.

Jackie McLean did Confirmation in 4, 5, And 6 (LP 7048) and Steeplechase in Jackie’s Pal (LP 7068); Red Garland took off on Constellation in a Garland Of Red (LP 7064); [Artist8639,Phil Woods and Donald Byrd revisited Dewey Square in The Youngbloods (LP 7080); Mobley himself presented Au Privave in his first Message. All of these, written by Parker, were recorded and played often by Bird. Crazeology. first recorded by Bird on the Dial label, was written by trumpeter Benny Harris.

The ballads are I Should Care, done at ballad tempo with solos by Kenny, Bish and Hank and the rarely played These Are The Things I Love. The latter has its usual ballad tempo raised, a device which the Messengers employed with several other standards in the past. The bridge here is treated in waltz time. Solos are by Hank, Kenny and Bish with later repartee between the horns.

Alter this recording, Hank and Kenny went their separate ways; Kenny with the Max Roach group and Hank with the new group of his old teammate, Horace Silver. If only for the time of this LP, it is good having them together again.