No Room for Squares: Lou Waxman on Hank Mobley’s Hard Bop Masterpiece

June 10, 2026

A while back you may have seen that a small collection of high-quality jazz records strolled into The Vogue. Like rap, jazz, particularly on Blue Note, Impulse, and Prestige, does not come around all that often. Lou apologizes for buying so much of it. It is a sickness. Surely you understand. Lou got his Miles and his Coltrane and his Rollins, but most of all Lou was excited to get his Hank Mobley. No Room for Squares on Blue Note to be exact.

Lou was introduced to Hank Mobley while working at Second Story Books, which is where Lou first encountered jazz. With Mobley, the record in question was Soul Station, which is widely considered Mobley’s finest effort. We played that record out. To be honest, Mobley could do no wrong in Lou eyes from that early 1960s period on Blue Note.

On the Blue Note album covers, Mobley looked cool, which was hard not to do. It is cliché to say that Blue Note design is cool, but it is, so be it. Lou will say it again. Blue Note records look cool. Perhaps it was Mobley’s way around a cigarette or, sad to admit, his giving off addict vibes. Say no to drugs was a mantra of Lou’s youth. As was don’t smoke. And keep it in your pants. But all those things resonated with Lou and they still do. Lou likes looking at pictures and watching videos of people smoking. Stupid and irresponsible as that may be. Mobley paid the price for being cool. Hank Mobley “Smokin’”. What a cost. What a loss. The smoking ended his career and eventually killed him,and the drug use tormented his life for decades. Mobley was homeless during periods of his life, and he served time in jail for drugs. In 1979, Mobley said, “It’s hard for me to think of what could be and what should have been.” He had regrets about the choices he made in terms of his addictions. Gladly, he was also addicted to making and composing music. And that is the coolest thing about him.

Hank Mobley. The name is cool. There is something about a Hank. Hank Williams. Charles Bukowski’s literary alter ego was a Hank. Hanks live hard. But Hanks can also be stand-up guys. Rocks. Hank Greenberg. Hank Aaron. Or Hanks are regular Joes, like Hank Hill. Henry just does not have the same vibe to it.

Hank Mobley is the sound of hard bop. When Lou thinks of the jazz he enjoys listening to on a consistent basis, he thinks of Lee Morgan on trumpet, Horace Silver on piano, Art Blakey on drums, and Hank Mobley on saxophone. This is hard bop. Miles and Coltrane are hard bop, too, but Lou prefers thesesecond jazzmen. They are not the heavyweights. Mobley was described by a critic as the middleweight champion of the world. Far from lightweight.

Hard bop with its funk, soul, blues, gospel, and R&B elements is musical comfort food. Not fancy. Just tasty and satisfying. When Lou was a kid and his father came to visit, many a time we would go to Arner’s. Simple food done well. Lots of it. The salad bar was inspiring. The pies were out of this world. The highs were remarkably high, and there were no real lows. The records of Hank Mobley could play in an Arner’s.

Now Lou knows what you are thinking. Didn’t Lou in a post ages ago, maybe Lou has forgotten all about it, pontificate about the joys of difficulty and try and get people to listen to unlistenable shit like Miles Davis’ Agharta. Lou called Kind of Blue Starbuck’s music. Lou is guilty as charged. Lou did say that. And Lou stands by it, but he also loves himself some hard bop, which is largely defined by how listenable it is. Lou contains multitudes and many frequencies. Hard bop and jazz fusion speak to Lou in a way that a record like Kind of Blue quite simply does not. That said Bill Evans is one of Lou’s true favorites. Multitudes, man. Lou guesses what he is saying is don’t listen to Lou, listen to whatever moves your soul. There is no wrong answer to the question of what treats you right. Even if Lou thinks you’re wrong. Lou is becoming an old softie talking about hard bop. Come on Lou, come strong. Kind of Blue is accessible to the point of being boring. That said, Hank Mobley has soul coming out of his hole and through his whole being. A record like Soul Station proves that. As does No Room for Squares. If you own copies, you become cool by association, and it isn’t even a crime.