CORY WEEDS tenor saxophoneMIKE LeDONNE b3 organ
OLIVER GANNON guitar
JESSE CAHILL drums

Released June, 2012
Recorded October 28th, 2011

Last fall, the Vancouver, B.C.-based tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds (b.1973) began planning this CD--his fifth as a leader. "Over a number of years," says Weeds, "I've gotten to know (the New York-based pianist and organist) Mike LeDonne (b.1956) as a friend," he explains, "and we've played together a lot. I've booked him at my jazz club in Vancouver (Weeds, of course, owns The Cellar there) several times. And I recorded my first CD as a leader (2008's BIG WEEDS, Cellar Live CLO11308) with him (and Peter Bernstein and Joe Farnsworth). So I decided to bring him to The Cellar for two nights, put together a little tour for right after that--two nights in Bellingham (Washington), two in Seattle, and two in Edmonton--and the last night of the tour, do a live record."
But, from there, Weeds was in the weeds. "I needed an original concept for the album," he says. "Then I talked to Mike (LeDonne), and he suggested doing an album of Hank Mobley tunes. And I thought that was a fantastic idea, but I wanted to avoid things like 'This I Dig of You,' which has been recorded a lot...So I started looking up what Hank had written..."Weeds immediately zeroed in on one of his favorite Mobley songs: "A Baptist Beat," from Mobley's 1960 album ROLL CALL. And, LeDonne singled out five others: "A Dab Of This And That" and "Bossa For Baby" from Mobley's 1967 date FAR AWAY LANDS; "Up A Step," from Mobley's 1963 LP NO ROOM FOR SQUARES; "Up, Over And Out" from the 1968 Mobley album REACH OUT; and "Straight No Filter," from Mobley's LP of the same name (recorded in 1963, but unreleased until 1985). Then, the two agreed on a Weeds choice, the Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz ballad "I See Your Face Before Me," from the 1937 Broadway show BETWEEN THE DEVIL--recorded by Mobley on his 1965 album DIPPIN', as well as by John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Hartman and Miles Davis--and a blues, LeDonne's own "Perfectly Hank." And, the organist went to work writing arrangements.