Day 336: Hank Mobley - Soul Station

‍Today I thought I’d explore a bit more of hard bop, a jazz subgenre that I seemingly like, as I needed something cool to play in the background while I cook. A fun discovery I’ve had in the course of this project is that jazz is one of the best genres to just have on at times when I maybe would have had a podcast on before. Seriously, what happened to podcasts? I open the app and there’s nothing there I want to listen to. Anyway, let’s get into Hank Mobley.

Album cover courtesy of Blue Note

Hank Mobley was a jazz tenor saxophonist and composer. He was born in Georgia but raised in New Jersey in a musical family. When he was 16, he was bedridden for months due to an illness, so his grandmother gifted him a saxophone to give him something to do, and he taught himself how to play using books. By the time he was 21, he was firmly a part of the New York jazz scene, playing with jazz legends like John Coltrane, Max Roach and the Duke Ellington Orchestra. He was also a founding member of the Jazz Messengers, who I listened to a few days ago on day 332.

Soul Station was released in 1960, and it’s widely regarded as Hank Mobley’s magnum opus. It features two standards, “Remember” and “If I Should Lose You”, as well as four of his original compositions. It features Wynton Kelly on the piano, Paul Chambers on the bass, and Art Blakey (of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers) on the drums.

I said a few days ago that hard bop could be my thing, and listening to this, I’m even more convinced. Soul Station is a record of simple, smooth and elegant music that’s a joy to listen to, even for a jazz neophyte like me. There’s an ease to it, but at the same time it feels like there’s just not a single note out of place, you couldn’t add or subtract anything to make it better as every part of it just sounds close to perfection.

The other thing I like about it is that like I said about Moanin’, it’s just so accessible. I don’t feel like I’m treading unknown waters, it just feels like music I can enjoy, even with little to no jazz background. It doesn’t feel like something I need to study or understand, but it’s something that I can just put on, and I haven’t really felt like I’m there with jazz yet. Soul Station is another 9/10, I really think I’ve found my entry point into the genre.