Bill Mobley

Joseph William "Bill" Mobley (born April 7, 1953) is an American jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player.

Biography

Mobley was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Both of his parents were musicians; Mobley learned piano, his mother's instrument, from age five, and while his father sang and played trombone and trumpet, Mobley did not have formal trumpet lessons in his youth. He attended North Texas State University in a music education program during 1971–72, then returned to Memphis, where he played with Herman Green (1972–74) and James Williams (1974). After graduating with a bachelor's degree from Rhodes College in 1976, he relocated from Memphis to Boston, where he took a position teaching at Berklee College of Music from 1982 to 1986. His credits in the 1980s included work with Bill Pierce, Donald Brown, the Artie Shaw Orchestra under the direction of Dick Johnson, and Geoff Keezer. In the 1990s he performed with Marvin "Smitty" Smith and Clifford Jordan, also playing with his own big band in New York City.

Discography

As leader

• (1993) Triple Bill
• (1998) Live at Small's, Vol. 1
• (2002) New Light
• (2002) Live at Small's, Vol. 2
• (2002) Mean What You Say
• (2007) Singularity
• (2007) Moodscape
• (2011) Live at Smoke, Vols. 1-2
• (2016) Hittin' Home

As sideman

With Geoff Keezer

• Waiting in the Wings (Sunnyside, 1989)

With Harold Mabern

• The Leading Man (DIW, 1993)

References

• Gary W. Kennedy, "Bill Mobley". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 2nd edition, ed. Barry Kernfeld.