Customer Reviews

Guitar on the Go

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The chronologically last Riverside album from Wes Montgomery picks up, mostly, where "Portrait of Wes" left off: a final few rounds with his beloved guitar-organ-drums trio format. Now, there are two ways to take this set, aside from the cool flame that seeps from every note sounded by the master and his longtime organist Mel Rhyne: 1) Take it on its own, and don't hold it against a collapsing company, changing ownership and lifestyle, that they repeat-released a pair of blues jewels from Montgomery's own pen, the early (as in, 1959) "Missile Blues" and the latter-day "Fried Pies"; or, 2) bypass those two numbers and put the rest onto a single disc with the "Portrait of Wes" material, if you really want to be prickly about it.

For me, I don't mind the repeat-released "Missile Blues" and (especially) "Fried Pies" (where Jimmy Cobb, the incandescent drummer with whom Montgomery would work again on the Half Note sessions with the Wynton Kelly Trio, joins Montgomery and Rhyne), if only because I had the habit of playing them repeatedly on their original album releases. Nor do I mind getting two takes of "The Way You Look Tonight," the shorter alternate take as lovely and lyrical as the nine-minute romantic monster that was issued originally. The "Unidentified Solo Guitar," not part of the original album, would be remade in due course (as "Mi Cosa," on "Bumpin'"), during Montgomery's Verve period, with a nicely arrayed string section, but taken here on its own it is just as embracing and would probably have been a perfect fit on the original release.

The more you hear of them, the more you come to wish Wes Montgomery had been able to bring at least Mel Rhyne along to his Verve years; Rhyne is attuned to Montgomery's gently fiery style in ways that even the great Jimmy Smith (cutting two magnificent Verve albums with Montgomery) couldn't quite lock in. Montgomery and Rhyne play as though completing each other's statements and knowing what the other man thinks and feels before it's expressed, so seamless are both the shifts from one to the other soloist and the knit of one or the other's accompaniment. Regular drummer George Brown was as painterly a drummer as Montgomery ever worked with.

You hear music like this and you're not in the least surprised that, whatever he did before or afterward, Wes Montgomery never felt as much at home as when working this trio format. And they make you feel right at home with them, even now. The Wes Montgomery Trio even in 2004 makes most of what has passed for jazz in their time and beyond sound somewhere between self-congratulatory and shiftless. It would be no disgrace if Fantasy, which controls the Riverside catalogue, should produce a box set composed strictly of the complete Wes Montgomery Trio recordings. This group, almost as much as its guitarist and leader, was a blessing upon jazz.

I recommend this for Wes fans only. If you want to buy an introductory CD to Wes music make it "Incredible Jazz Guitar". However, for those who are familiar with Wes, this piece of work shows a beautiful and relaxed set, where Wes portraits his trademark sound. A great example is "Polka Dots and Moonbeams", one of the finest covers ever made, a tune which, in Wes hands, breathes unique sweetness.

Guitar on the Go was Wes' last release on Riverside. This album consists of a few reissued tracks (Missile Blues and Fried Pies from The Wes Montgomery Trio) as well as new tracks from his final Riverside sessions. It seems like it was released as an afterthought, after Riverside had gone defunct. Wes' guitar is hard to hear on most of the new tracks, but Mi Cosa (Unidentified Solo Guitar), the last track on the album, is fantastic and made this album worth purchasing. Recommended for fans who already own most of his other albums. If you are new to Wes I'd recommend The Incredible Jazz Guitar, Smokin' At The Half Note, Boss Guitar, or The Wes Montgomery Trio.