Soulville is a hard bop composition by pianist and composer Horace Silver, first recorded for his 1957 Blue Note album The Stylings of Silver. The original session took place on May 8, 1957, at Rudy Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, with a quintet featuring Art Farmer on trumpet, Hank Mobley on tenor saxophone, Teddy Kotick on bass, and Louis Hayes on drums. Written in AABA form over an extended 44-bar structure, the tune is notable for its longer-than-standard form, giving the melody additional room to develop beyond the typical 32-bar framework. The composition embodies Silver's characteristic blend of bebop sophistication with gospel and blues inflections, featuring a soulful melodic line that lives up to its evocative title. It is not a contrafact but a fully original composition. Soulville reflects the compositional approach Silver was refining during his most productive period at Blue Note, where he crafted tunes that were harmonically engaging yet accessible, with catchy melodies designed to connect with listeners without sacrificing jazz substance. The tune sits alongside other originals from the same album session, including No Smokin', Home Cookin', and Metamorphosis, all of which showcase Silver's range as a composer working within the hard bop idiom during its golden era in the late 1950s.
