Customer Reviews

Incredible Jazz Guitar

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the very useful liner notes to this release point out, this 1960 recording was a bit of a coming-out party for Montgomery, arguably the best and most influential jazz guitarist of the last half century. The title is not hyperbole; the guitar playing here is indeed incredible, although Wes sets aside mere flash for meaningful swing.

The guitarist benefits from a crack band behind him: Al and Percy Heath on drums and bass, respectively, and the flawless Tommy Flanagan on piano. Flanagan had shortly before this date contributed mightily to Coltrane's "Giant Steps," and his ability to seamlessly slip in behind Montgomery on a date that couldn't be more different than Coltrane's is testimony to his taste and his chops.

Wes's startling chording will be a revelation to those who haven't heard him before, but even if you've listened to him a lot you'll still find his work on, for example, "Four on Six" and "West Coast Blues" immensely satisfying. On both these cuts, he flows endlessly between chords and octaves, creating a smooth river of sound. Beautiful.

Also of note is his treatment of "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," a chestnut that Wes turns into a lovely romance that sounds new and fresh. This is a great CD for the jazz guitar lover, who will realize immediately that it doesn't get much better than this.

This is a great, great album. You need to buy this album if you are interested in jazz guitar or guitar at all. But the sound on this CD is just plain awful. Spend the extra bucks and get the Hybrid SACD version or at least the 24 bit remastering, its worth it.

One of Wes Montgomery's best albums, if not THE best, and one of the best albums of the 1960s. Technically Wes was at the top of his game at this point, and he came into the recording studio at the end of January 1960, in very high spirits: his daughter Toni had just been born and he had just signed a deal with Fantasy where he'd be able to record with his brothers Monk and Buddy.

All of this is evident on this recording. And pianist Tommy Flanagan, whose mere presence almost assures a successful recording endeavor, is playing at peak form. Highlights include the initial recording of Wes's WEST COAST BLUES, which would quickly become a jazz standard; a superb version of GONE WITH THE WIND, which is an example of virtuoso guitar playing at it's finest; and D-NATURAL BLUES, with great down-home feeling, that some NYC jazz fans from the 60's might remember as never-to-be-surpassed jazz dj Ed Beach's background music. But everything on this CD works marvelously, and the album became the one against which all other Montgomery albums were measured. A gotta-have CD.

If you've yet to add any of guitarist Montgomery's recordings to your collection, this wouldn't be a bad start. In fact, you probably couldn't do much better. For this 1960 session, produced by Orrin Keepnews, Montgomery was surrounded by a stellar group of musicians: the incomparable Tommy Flanagan on piano, and the always compatible duo of bassist Percy Heath and his brother, drummer Albert Heath. The material is strong, ranging from standards like "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and "Gone With the Wind" to Montgomery originals "Four On Six" and "West Coast Blues" (both of which subsequently became 'standards' in their own right). I don't know much about jazz guitar, but Montgomery is definitely on point here--his improvisations are always very fluid and soulful. Flanagan provides sensitive accompaniment, as usual--dig his beautiful solo on Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweeet Way." All in all, this'd be a great recording to introduce, say, a budding jazz guitarist to how a guitar should function in a jazz ensemble. Well worth owning.

This was Montgomery's second record, and the early 1960 sessions with the great backing of pianist Tommy Flanagan, Percy Heath on bass (of Modern Jazz Quartet fame) and Albert Heath on drums made him famous.Unusual in that the album features four original songs, two by other jazz greats and only two "pop standards", this disc rewards attentive listening with the earphones before throwing it on the living room player as background. I've liked jazz guitar ever since Wes got his career started, and the newer guys I've heard like Pat Methany and John Scofield simply don't hold my interest as well as Wes does.

Wes Montgomery. The world's greatest jazz guitarist. Many copied his octive style that made him so unique. He played all of this, even at killer tempos, and only used his thumb!

In my opinion, this was Wes Montgomery's first real important album. He displays everything here. His big swinging sense, his thumb technique and the beautiful octive sound.

This is the epitome of great jazz guitar. Wes, himself, the virtososo he was, played all of these tunes with such ease. If he was alive today, and was making these wonderful recordings, I'd be out getting all those great albums.

Wes does a great job covering Sonny Rollins' Airegin, my favorite Sonny Rollins composition of all. Wes even does a great job at Gone With The Wind. Perhaps only Dave Brubeck's version can compare.

There is no irony in the title of this album. And if anyone has any doubt about that, just listen to this album. Wes displays it all here.

The coming out LP "The Incredible Jazz Guitar Of Wes Montgomery" is a great intro CD to Wes, and still one of the best out there. Riverside Records (and Orrin Keepnews) was lucky enough to get a lot more from Wes in the studio, and anyone who can not rest until hearing more Wes at his best should try to check out ALL of the Riverside stuff. This LP was re-released in the early 70s along with "So Much Guitar" as a double album. The personnel on "So Much Guitar" includes Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Lex Humphries, and Ray Barretto. I have not seen this on CD as a single disc as yet; however, there is a compilation of all Wes' Riverside work - "The Complete Riverside Recordings" - and it includes out-takes (yes...Wes was human after all!) and my favorite cut from "So Much Guitar"...the stunning solo piece "While We're Young". Start with this CD, but dig further and you will be richly rewarded.

This CD has already got 17 reviews,,so here comes number 18.
The recording is already 43 years old and still Wes playing is as fresh as it was then. A few things comes to mind when listen...Wes used to call that a player had a good definition if his phrasing was clear and had a good timing and that is by all means true about Wes himself...it is also amazing to listen to his lines knowing that he was basically a "3 finger" player and when ytu saw him playing it seemed that he would be restricted by this..but not so.
Wes also had a tremedous command of the bebop language..he must a have been one of the very first guitarists that really applied the Charlie Parker language to the guitar,
On this recording several of the legendary tunes written by Wes appear..like "Westcoast Blues" Full House" and the funky "D natural Blues" "Mr Walker..which Ronny Jordan by the way made a nice version of.... and then there is a beautiful version of the standard "Gone with the wind"
We are a lot of jazzguitarplayers that owes a lot to Wes...some of the very best players out of the Montgomery tradition.in my opinion is in particular JIMMY PONDER but also PETE BERNSTEIN and ROYCE CAMPBELL.Ponder is the one that is the closest to Wes . only using his thumb like Wes.

This album is, simply put, brilliant. The whole album is perfect. Wes manages to make his solos harmonically complex but still melodic. I've transcribed most of Wes' solos on this album, and it never ceases to amaze me how clever and inventive they are. They're so catchy that you can hum them after hearing them once, but they're also so complex that you can listen to them thousands of times and they'll still sound fresh. You could practically learn how to play jazz guitar from this; Wes' solo on West Coast blues is the standard of excellence in jazz guitar playing. Everything Wes plays seems to fit perfectly; there is not a single note that seems out of place. Buy this album to learn what jazz guitar should sound like.

I owned this recording long before ever hearing a lick from the likes of Grant Green, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, Andreas Pettersson, or Peter Bernstein (just to name a few of my axe heroes aside from Wes), and I don't think I ever fully appreciated it until reading an interview with Metheny in which he names Montgomery as his all-time guitar influence, in terms of Wes's phrasing. It then dawned on me that this record not only sounds great, but it represents an *original* work that set a standard that has influenced thousands of jazz guitarists over the past 40 years. The simplest way to describe this recording is that throughout each track (and they all sound great) Wes makes his guitar sing in a way that few at the time thought possible. Moreover, he shows a very diverse range of melodic capabilities, from the ballad "Polka Dots and Moonbeams", to the jam "Four on Six". The rhythm section also seems superb here (how can one go wrong with Tommy Flanagan and the Heath Bros.?).
Most impressive about this recording, however, is the feeling I get that Wes is not breaking much of a sweat here. The notes just seem to flow out in a very natural way and the music seems very unpretentious. If I could afford it, I would buy the entire box set representing all of Wes's Riverside recordings.