soul station

Hank Mobley found freedom and simplified his sound for the joyous jazz of this relaxed remembrance.  After more than a dozen albums in five years as bandleader; including two on the Savoy label (The Jazz Message of Hank Mobley in 1956  and the Jazz Message No. 2 EP in 1957),   two on Prestige (Mobley's Message  and  Mobley's 2nd Message  in 1956),   and nine on Blue Note Records (the  Hank Mobley Quartet EP in 1955;  Hank Mobley Sextet,  Hank Mobley and His All Stars,   Hank Mobley Quintet,   Hank,   Hank Mobley,   Curtain Call,  and  Poppin'  in 1957;   and   Peckin' Time  in 1958) and appearances on more than three dozen other albums with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers,   Kenny Burrell,   Donald Byrd,   Sonny Clark,   Al Cohn, John Coltrane,   Kenny Dorham,  Kenny Drew,  Art Farmer,  Curtis Fuller,  Dizzy Gillespie,  Johnny Griffin,  J. J. Johnson,  Lee Morgan,  Dizzy Reece,  Rita Reys,  Max Roach,  Horace Silver,  Zoot Sims,  Jimmy Smith,  and  Julius Watkins;   Mobley was arrested for heroin possession in February of 1959 and spent a year in prison.  Upon his release, he returned to the quartet format for the first time since his bandleader debut in 1955.   

 'Soul Station' features  Mobley on tenor saxophone,  with the backing trio of  Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Blakey on drums.   Recorded on February 7, 1960 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey with producer Alfred Lion and engineer Rudy Van Gelder, the album swings easy with a soft edged hard bop that became his most celebrated release.  








http://www.bluenote.com/artists/hank-mobley


http://hankmobley.jazzgiants.net/






 
'Soul Station' 
full album:




Side one
1. "Remember"   Irving Berlin 5:41
2. "This I Dig of You"   Hank Mobley 6:25
3. "Dig Dis"   Hank Mobley 6:08
Side two
1. "Split Feelin's"   Hank Mobley 4:55
2. "Soul Station"   Hank Mobley 9:06
3. "If I Should Lose You"   Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin 5:08

no room for squares

Hank Mobley carved out his own shapely sound with the fierce fluidity of these modal hardbop blues. Mobley had taught himself to play saxophone when he was a teenager and worked with Paul Gayten, Max Roach, and Dizzy Gillespie before taking part in the seminal hardbop sessions that produced  'Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers'.  As a bandleader, he recorded with his quartet, quintet, and sextet; as well as with His All Stars before an arrest for drugs sidelined him for a couple of years.  He rejoined the Jazz Messengers briefly before embarking on a string of hard bop classics:    'Soul Station', 'Role Call', and 'Workout'.  Around this same period he joined Miles Davis' quintet as a replacement for John Coltrane on 'Someday My Prince Will Come'.  (as well as two live albums:  'In Person Friday and Saturday Nights at the Blackhawk' and 'Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall')

Mobley would recall:  “I had the knowledge. When I got strung out it was my own fault. A person getting strung out at age 18; that’s a problem. He doesn’t even have a chance to learn what life is about. By the time I got strung out I had learned my instrument, I was making money...I told Miles ‘I never played with somebody who plays like Art Tatum on the saxophone.’ Miles said, ‘That’s why I hired you. I want to put your interpretation with his.'...But when I left Miles, I was so tired of music, the whole world, man, I just went back to drugs.” 

Mobley's next wave would be even more daring.  'No Room For Squares' was recorded for Blue Note Records at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.  The album is culled from two sessions with different lineups.   On March 7, 1963 he recorded "Up a Step" and "Old World, New Imports" (more tracks from this session would be released later on 'The Turnaround') with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Herbie Hancock on piano, and Butch Warren on bass;  while October 2, 1963 his band featured Lee Morgan on trumpet, Andrew Hill on piano, and John Ore on bass.  Both sessions feature Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone with Philly Joe Jones on drums.  

Mobley would describe his own style thusly:   “not a big sound, not a small sound, just a round sound”.    







http://hankmobley.blogspot.com/

http://hankmobley.jazzgiants.net/





"No Room For Squares"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZu42x8LWVM



"Carolyn"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2PPbeBVHwQ







'No Room For Squares' 
full album:

https://myspace.com/hankmobleymusic/music/album/no-room-for-squares-the-rudy-van-gelder-edition-18989476

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcq_zg-Zw5k&list=PLFBADE21A3C6C7A53




All compositions by Hank Mobley except as indicated

"Three Way Split" – 7:49
"Carolyn" (Morgan) – 5:30
"Up a Step" – 8:31
"No Room for Squares" – 6:57
"Me 'N You" (Morgan) – 7:17
"Old World, New Imports" – 6:08

bonus
"Comin' Back"
"Syrup and Biscuits"