Track Listing

1. Remember
2. This I Dig of You
3. Dig Dis
4. Split Feelin's
5. Soul Station
6. If I Should Lose You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3446 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
Soul Station is Hank Mobley's acknowledged masterpiece. Mobley's hot, brilliantly constructed solos have a smooth sound and an easy feel. With Miles Davis at the time, Mobley is joined by bandmates Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers along with a magnificent Art Blakey. A true classic.

Amazon.com
This 1960 session broke the usual Blue Note quintet mold, with Mobley's tenor saxophone featured with just a rhythm section, one that happened to be the best of the era. Pianist Wynton Kelly and bassist Paul Chambers were working regularly with Mobley in Miles Davis's band, while the explosive drummer Art Blakey had worked with him in the original, cooperative form of the Jazz Messengers, and the familiarity shows. Blue Note had a reputation for producing "meat 'n' potatoes" jazz, and no musician would better fit the description than Mobley, who went about the task of making music with a workmanlike focus and a consistency that didn't attract nearly the attention it deserved. Mobley was one of the most talented saxophonists of his generation, a superbly lyrical artist who blended an inventive tunefulness with taut rhythmic attentiveness. The flowing blues of the title track is a particularly fine example of his art. And to say this session is exemplary would be an understatement. --Stuart Broomer

Customer Reviews

A Giant of the Blue Note Catalog
Recorded by Rudy Van Gelder in February of 1960, Hank Mobley (tenor sax), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (bass) and Art Blakey (drums) created one of the best Blue Note albums of all time. Or at the very least, one my my favorites. =)

I feel like I always say the same thing about Hank's playing, but I'll say it again. He had remarkable restraint. He never has what I would call "ecstatic emotional highs", but he is calmly emotionally powerful almost all the time. He doesn't work himself up into a froth and a frenzy, buliding up to any sort of freewheeling burst of saxophonic energy as some other tenor players might do. I guess that can be a good or a bad thing, depending on your mood at the time, or your tastes as a whole, but I think it's fascinating. His tone is incredible, as if he is blowing melodic, lyrical lines of warm satin out of his horn.

There isn't one tune here I could say anything bad about. Everyone is ON... ALL the time. Art Blakey was swing incarnate on this date, and Wynton Kelly was Wynton Kelly... lyrical, playful, bluesy as all get-out. I love Wynton's playing. There's just no other way to put it. He was one of the most tuned-in pianists ever. His touch and approach feel like they were tailor-made for my soul. Honestly, even if you didn't much like Hank himself I could still see you liking this album just by focusing on Wynton, Paul and Art. They are a killer band in and of themselves... everyone just milking every ounce of style and heart out of every tune presented here. You didn't think I had forgotten about Paul, did you? The great bassist at the core of probably more fantastic sessions than any other bassist in history. James Jamerson of Motown is (well, was) the only other bass player I can think of who may rival that number.

This is one of those albums where I don't think it matters where you are in the jazz spectrum... whether you've been listening to jazz longer than I've been alive and just haven't gotten around to getting this remaster, or you're in the market to buy your 3rd jazz album, you cannot go wrong with this masterpiece. It's only a little over 30 minutes long, but it's a magnificent 30+ minutes.

Overlooked Magnificence
Hank Mobley is one of the most prolifically recorded instrumentalists in the history of jazz, mostly as a side-man with the likes of Art Blakey, Horace Silver, and Miles Davis. Yet seldom does his name arise in discussions of the great tenor players. In some respects, the oversight is understandable. He did not approach music with an agenda, a persona, a gimmick or any sort of extra-musical purpose. His tone is warm, exquisitely "natural" and soulful--not husky, penetrating, or dipped in excess testerone. I'm not sure about his background, but if there's any such thing as a natural, "born" musician it's Mobs. He's perhaps the most "reactive" player the music has known. There are tenor players who construct solos out of more or less "set" phrases or formulae (Sonny Stitt); who deliberately create harmonic complexity (Coltrane) or test the limits of a single motif (Rollins). But Mobs is a player who simply takes what he's given--he hears the chord change and reacts to it. And his responses are invariably fresh, lyrical, ceaselessly stirring and surprising in their sheer melodic inventiveness. Listen to his solo on "Bye Bye Blackbird" on Miles Davis' "Live at the Blackhawk" if you want to hear improvisation at its very best. The man may have had great technique. The point is that his musical imagination was of an order that didn't require it. The melody just pours out his horn with such inspiration that the familiar arsenal in most tenors' repertoires--the top tones, harmonics, alternate fingurings, wobbles and other articulations--is completely beside the point in a Mobley solo.
In 1961-62 Blue Note had the foresight to record Mobley as leader on 4 priceless albums. "Soul Station" is my favorite of the four because he doesn't have to share solo time with another horn and because the tunes, Irving Berlin's sentimental old chestnut, "Remember," as well as Mobley originals, push him to draw deeply upon that inexhaustible reservoir of lyrical emotion and melodic invention. When I heard Mobs in the seventies, he was a mere shadow of his former self. There were rumors that his horn had been stolen, that he was playing "leaky" borrowed instruments he couldn't afford to have repaired, that both his chops and mind were totally wasted. It's a story played out all too frequently with so many of the greats--Lester, Ben, Hawk. All the more reason not only to own a recording such as this but to be its responsible custodian for future generations who have not lost the capacity to hear.

this one cooks!
mr. mobley was a prolific artist for blue note turning out a myriad of albums, some good, others not (at times it seemed he got bored). this is one of the best. backed by wynton kelly, paul chambers, and art blakey, mr. mobley is focused, bluesy, and hard swinging. the opening three tracks are worth the price of admission alone. 'remember' sets the groove, and 'this i dig...' and 'dig dis' keep it going. if you're not wiggling your hips by the time these three tracks are done, you may need to check your pulse. this is hard bop at its best, blending the beat of r-n-b with the swing and drive of classic jazz. the solos are outstanding and the rhythm section's time impeccable (and you've got to love art blakey's rim shots that keep the fire stoked). the second half of the album settles into the blue note sound: solid modern jazz with be-bop edginess. 'split feelin's'is a classic. the title track returns to the groove, and the album closes out with a solid ballad. all in all, a very satisfying session from one of the best of blue note's tenor men.