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Wes Montgomery: Echoes of Indiana Avenue
by Dan Bilawsky
In the mid-twentieth century, Indianapolis was an incubator for jazz talent. Trombonist J.J. Johnson, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and guitarist Wes Montgomery all began their individual ascents to stardom from the heart of Hoosier country. While the first two artists had long careers, Montgomery wasn't so lucky. This self-taught genius, who burst onto the national scene in 1958, was felled by a fatal heart only a decade later.In ten short years, Montgomery delivered a string of classic recordings that ...
Continue ReadingWes Montgomery: Echoes of Indiana Avenue
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Not since the discovery of the Voice of America tapes of the 1957 Carnegie Hall concert by Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane has there been an event as exciting as the surfacing of this rare first recording by guitar-maestro Wes Montgomery. The Echoes of Indiana Avenue masters, procured by Montgomery fan Jim Greeninger, were offered to producer Michael Cuscuna who, in turn, brought in Zev Feldman of Resonance Records to unravel the mystery of the lost Montgomery tapes. It required ...
Continue ReadingWes Montgomery, Soulive and the Beatles: Bending Time
by Chris May
Two albums by guitar/organ trios would seem, on the face of it, to be prosaic enough propositions. And musically, guitarist Wes Montgomery's Boss Guitar, newly remastered, and Soulive's Rubber Soulive, recorded in 2010, are indeed straightforward affairs. But consider them together, and a cluster of time warps emerge, as 47 years of age difference shrink and futurism, modernism, revivalism and anachronism bleed into each other. Wes Montgomery Boss Guitar Riverside / OJC Remasters 2010 (1963) ...
Continue ReadingWes Montgomery: The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery
by Chris May
Ask a dozen jazz guitar fans for their all-time top guitar albums and The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery is likely to be high on every list. If it isn't, chances are Montgomery's live set Full House (Riverside, 1962), recorded two years later, will be. With these discs, Indianapolis-born Montgomery (1923-68) gave the guitar its biggest quantum leaps forward, both stylistically and in terms of listener acceptance, since Charlie Christian in the late 1930s/early 1940s and Johnny Smith in ...
Continue ReadingWes Montgomery: Live in '65
by Jim Santella
Wes Montgomery Live in '65 Jazz Icons2007 If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many pages equate to the feeling that you get from a video? As the saying goes, “It's the next best thing to being there.These three sessions, produced for Reelin' In The Years Productions in Europe, feature guitarist Wes Montgomery with three different piano trios. Filmed in black and white for television, the images are ...
Continue ReadingWes Montgomery: Boss Guitar
by Kurt Gottschalk
Wes Montgomery recorded Boss Guitar at age 38, near the end of his acclaimed Riverside years and just five years before his death. While the records that followed would give him some radio hits (and lose him some fans), the 1963 session was a time when he really could make the bold claim of the album’s title. The previous year, Montgomery had placed fourth in the then influential Playboy Jazz Poll among reader ballots, and had been named “All-Stars’ All-Star ...
Continue ReadingWes Montgomery: Boss Guitar
by David Rickert
Wes Montgomery’s first recordings as a leader for Riverside featured the popular organ-guitar-drums line-up, a configuration that he later abandoned for the better part of his stint with the label. Although organ jazz was quite a cash cow at the time, Montgomery was firmly rooted in bop, more eager to see what he could do with material like “Cottontail” rather than engaging in steamy soul jazz workouts. However, for his final recording with Riverside in 1963, Montgomery returned to the ...
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