Hank Mobley: Soul Station (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Classic Vinyl Series pressing was mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal. Inside is Mobley's quartet at its warmest, with a rhythm section that could hardly be bettered in 1960.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog tapes
• Pressed in Germany
• Stereo mix

About the album

Tenor players in 1960 tended to be measured against two giants, and Hank Mobley chose not to shout. His tone was round and conversational, his ideas came in long, relaxed sentences, and on February 7, 1960 at the Van Gelder Studio he put all of it on one record.

He brought along his old boss from the Jazz Messengers, Art Blakey, plus Wynton Kelly and Paul Chambers, who were about to join Mobley in the Miles Davis Quintet by year's end. Two standards bookend the set: Irving Berlin's "Remember" opens it with an easy swing, and "If I Should Lose You" closes it. In between come four Mobley originals, from the bluesy title track to the uptempo "This I Dig Of You," with Kelly's piano sparkling all the way through. Alfred Lion produced, Rudy Van Gelder engineered, and Reid Miles did the cover.

In the liner notes to the Rudy Van Gelder CD edition, critic Bob Blumenthal placed it beside Saxophone Colossus and Giant Steps as a defining statement, and DownBeat praised its thoughtful preparation. It is, in short, the record you hand someone who says they don't like jazz, and then you quietly leave the room.

Also at Kops: more Hank Mobley on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 0746554), a reissue of the 1960 album.