Hank Mobley

No Room for Squares Hank Mobley Japan Import edition

Hank Mobley's 1963 album “No Room For Squares” not only boasts one of Reid Miles' most attractive cover designs, but is also a musical masterpiece. The tenor saxophonist had already recorded several hard bop highlights for Blue Note, including “Soul Station” and “Workout,” but “No Room For Squares” was an even more ambitious project in which Mobley further expanded his charisma as a bandleader, improviser, and composer. The album was recorded in two different sessions with different quintet lineups: on March 7, Mobley was accompanied by trumpeter Donald Byrd, pianist Herbie Hancock, double bassist Butch Warren, and drummer Philly Joe Jones, who brought Mobley's original compositions “Up A Step” and “Old World, New Imports” to life in a rousing performance. On October 2, Mobley returned to Rudy Van Gelder's studio, once again with Jones on drums, along with trumpeter Lee Morgan, pianist Andrew Hill, and double bassist John Ore, to record Mobley's brilliant pieces “Three Way Split” and “No Room For Squares”, as well as two remarkable pieces by Morgan, the beautiful ballad “Carolyn” and the rousing “Me ‘N You”.

As part of the extremely popular “Blue Note 85th Anniversary Reissue Series”, Universal Music Japan presents the sonically impressive remastering of this jazz classic by the legendary Kevin Gray, who is also responsible for the analog reissues of Blue Note US such as “Tone Poet” and “Classic Vinyl” – as a limited-edition Japan only UHQCD with OBI Stripe. The recording sessions for “No Room For Squares” took place on March 7 and October 2, 1963 at the Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

UHQCD stands for Ultimate High Quality Compact Disc and is a joint development of the Japanese CD replication company Memory-Tech and the Audio Quality CD Company from Hong Kong. Unlike conventional CDs, UHQCDs are not pressed from polycarbonate, but cast from a photopolymer and cured with UV light. Another layer of high-purity polycarbonate is applied to the softer photopolymer for scratch protection. The combination results in significantly reduced reflection of laser light inside the CD and an unmatched precise edge transition between pits and lands of the CD. UHQCDs are 100% compatible with standard CD players. Musically, the result is a sound image strongly reminiscent of analog master tapes.

While Universal Music Japan's first UHQCD series relied on the DSD data of previous SHM-SACD releases, with increasing popularity, albums that had not previously been released as SHM-SACD are now appearing. Typically, the Universal Archive master tapes are re-converted to DSD for this purpose. UHQCDs are ideal for music lovers who want to get as close as possible to the sound of the recording, but do not own an SACD player.