Customer Reviews

Compact Jazz: Plays the Blues

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know why I bother to continually review out of print recordings. Perhaps it's because I a)Like Them, or 2)Figure they'll come into print again.
I doubt this one will come into print again, however, since it is ANOTHER Wes compilation (not an original album) and there's no shortage of compilations of Wes' music out there. In fact i'm sure his compilations now outweigh the number of original albums he released .
However, I bought this one despite having all of the tracks anyway on the orignal albums.
This compilation was released in 1988. Unlike most of Montgomery's compilations-which are just kind of thrown together from available tracks usually licensed from one of the labels Wes recorded for during his liftime, this one at least has a theme. And that is a choice of Wes' more blusey moments recorded for the Verve label during his time there in the mid-60's, a few years before he died.
The track list consists only of well-known and readily available (on other compilations as well as the original albums)recordings of Wes' doing his jazz-blues moves.
The CD runs 58:29-not as long as it could, but i'll avoid deducting a star only because this compilation works around a musical theme instead of just trying to compile an overview of all of the types of music Wes played during a specific period.
I'm not a big fan of the blues in general I must admit. But considering it runs just under an hour and, thankfully, the instrumentation is varied enough so that the listener shouldn't get bored-like I know I would if the entire disc consisted of the same instruments on every track.
Not that this is important to the music, but i've always been a sucker for the cover designs of the Verve "Compact Jazz" compilation series which always uses the same logos and fonts and features an interesting mix of black and white and color photos randomly placed. In some cases it seems whoever designed this also was familar with the period which this music was recorded in as some of the photos are of old "classic" cars from what looks like the 50's and 60's. It may not be important but it's a nice touch and on several occaisions it actually made me pick up a compilation I may have not normally purchased because I already had most (or all) of the music on the actually CD.

Wes Montgomery, the most significant jazz guitarist since pioneer genius Charles Christian (Freddy Green didn't solo) is heard here in various styles. We have the quartet, the large band, blues, non-blues, a quartet version of "Willow Weep for Me" and a big band version of "West Coast Blues" (compare the quartet version on "Incredible Jazz Guitar"). Likewise various great sidemen: Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Jimmys Cobb and Smith, et al. And yes, the flowing lead lines in the Christian tradition; the octaves. Wes doesn't appear to have been recorded enough in pure jazz settings making this CD a necessity for serious listeners of the jazz guitar.

Wes montgomery did an outstanding job putting together "Zazz 'Round midnight. If someone had told me that I was listening to Kenny Burrell, I would have said that it sounded like something on about that level. Burrell is usually a 3, maybe a 3 1/2 jazz musician.