"Dig Dis" is a medium-tempo blues original by Hank Mobley from his landmark 1960 Blue Note album Soul Station. Set as a 12-bar blues in B-flat at approximately 142 bpm, the tune provides a relaxed framework for Mobley's distinctive brand of blues-inflected improvisation. His eight-chorus solo is a masterclass in melodic development and rhythmic variety within the blues form, each chorus introducing new ideas while maintaining a narrative thread that carries the listener forward. Mobley's warm, rounded tone and smooth phrasing give even his most harmonically adventurous moments an appealing accessibility, embodying the "middleweight champion" reputation that Pat Harris of Down Beat magazine famously bestowed upon him. Pianist Wynton Kelly follows with four blues-soaked choruses that showcase his inimitable combination of sophistication and earthiness. The rhythm section of Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Art Blakey swings with an effortless groove that epitomizes the Blue Note sound of this era. "Dig Dis" demonstrates that the 12-bar blues, the most fundamental form in jazz, remains a bottomless well of creative possibility when played by musicians of this caliber.
