Soul Station [Import, Original recording remastered]

Hank Mobley | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Blue Note Japan
• ASIN: B0000549P4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,173,198 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Remember

2. This I Dig of You

3. Dig Dis

4. Split Feelin's

5. Soul Station

6. If I Should Lose You

Editorial Reviews

24 bit digitally remastered 1998 Japanese reissue on BlueNote of his 1960 album for the label in a miniaturized LPsleeve limited to the initial pressing only. The All MusicGuide To Jazz gave the recording five out of five stars. Sixtracks. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The way to do it, March 6, 2003

By 

Tyler Smith (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soul Station (Audio CD)

There are many excellent Hank Mobley records, and thankfully Blue Note has been quite good about reissuing them on CD. "Soul Station," along with "Workout," is the most consistently satisfying.

The lineup tells you that you will be hearing a professional presentation of the music: Mobley, Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Blakey on drums on a February 1960 recording date. Still, great lineups sometimes fail to deliver the intangibles that make for a great session. Not so here.

For me, the track that sums up the date best is "This I Dig of You," a medium-tempo take that is so relaxed it sounds effortless, but delivers unforced emotion and swing. Mobley delivers a sweetly lyrical line that Kelly comments on fluidly, and then Hank delivers a solo with his signature midregister, buttery tone. I admire him greatly because he was surrounded by other greats: Hawkins and Young before him; Coltrane, Gordon, Coleman as his contemporaries; and he cut his own ground.

There is nothing revolutionary here. It's honest, unadorned swinging using simple, effective melodies as the base. But it's like saying "Over the Rainbow" is a simple tune. The genius of these musicians is to take the middle ground material and turn it into personal, deeply felt statements that you can sing, dance to, and just kick back and enjoy, from the deep groove of "Dig Dis" to the Latin rhythms of "Split Feelin's" to the blues of "Soul Station" to the heartfelt "If I Should Lose You." The nearly perfect fusion of this quartet comes through on each of these tunes.

Mobley may slip past you if you are dipping into the archives of the great Blue Note recordings, but don't let that happen for long.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Dictionary of Soul, February 5, 1999

By 

Jeff Hubbard (SLC, UTAH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soul Station (Audio CD)

The greatest jazz album ever? Such a pronouncement is always an exercise in futility, but a strong argument could certainly be for "Soul Station." I can think of several more celebrated and popular jazz albums, none of which I'll name here, that offer far less in terms of stylistic breadth and sheer thrills. One thing's for sure: you will not find 40 minutes of more entertaining jazz listening than this.

Mobely's writing is a marvel, so much so that I think the oft-used term "blowing session" is misleading in relation to this album, which would be more accurately discribed as a major work of art, unimpeachable in its aesthetic virtues. "This I Dig of You" is a hard bop staple, and for very good reason; the melody is addictive, its swing so convincing as to feel inexorable. And, as if that weren't enough, Art Blakey therein knocks out one of the coolest drum solos you'll ever hear. It's all dazzling, but more importantly, it's a lot of fun. If you've got friends who think jazz is just music that pseudo-intellectual trendoids use as some sort badge of hipness, please steer them straight to this album for evidence to the contrary. It's replete with the power of conversion.

One could extoll this disc's virtues ad infinitum, though superlatives would quickly be exhausted in the act. Suffice it to say that a five star rating barely does it justice. It is one of those truly rare, perfect things. Buy it or suffer the consequences of its absence in your life, which are not inconsequential.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars high octane jazz at its best, July 29, 2008

By 

Kirk Alex - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soul Station (Audio CD)

Own but only two CDs by this great jazz artist and will, no doubt, buy more.

Have played this record, and Dippin', a few times by now--and each time I play either record it's like hearing it for the very first time--and that's the highest compliment I can give to any recording and/or musician.

Further evidence that jazz (just might be) the greatest of the arts ever invented by humans. And that's a tough admission for me, as I have always been a lover of good writing and fine art.