Wes Montgomery Ebooklet
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Overlooked for years as just another one of Wes Montgomery’s 11 solo releases for Riverside, So Much Guitar! should be considered on par with The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Mont- gomery—his groundbreaking album of 1960. So Much Guitar! Recorded in 1961, So Much Guitar! was a turning point for Montgomery—and for bassist Ron Carter. While Incredible Jazz Guitar put Montgomery in play with critics, So BONUS TRACKS Much Guitar! caught the ear of poll-voting jazz fans and established him as a soulful force. The album also 1. Twisted Blues 5:38 9. Jeannine 4:11 marked Carter’s first opportunity to show his stuff on the fly—transforming the formally trained 24-year-old (Wes Montgomery) Taggie Music-BMI (Duke Pearson) Upham Music-BMI into a first-call session player. Today he is among the most prolific recording artists in jazz history. All of which makes one wonder why there were so few Montgomery albums on Riverside like So Much 2. Cotton Tail 3:42 10. Snowfall 6:52 (Duke Ellington) EMI Robbins Catalog-ASCAP (Claude Thornhill) Chappell & Co.-ASCAP Guitar!—a classic rhythm section date designed to showcase the guitarist’s breadth and genius. Much of the blame rests with Montgomery himself. 3. I Wish I Knew 5:29 11. Angel Eyes 6:28 (Gordon-Warren) WB Music Corp.-ASCAP (Brent-Dennis) Music Sales Corp.-ASCAP A reluctant recorder, Montgomery was uneasy in studios, particularly when cast as session leader. Blessed with a forceful thumb and a startling ability to improvise with octaves, the guitarist throughout the 4. I'm Just a Lucky So and So 5:57 12. Barbados 2:33 ‘50s preferred to linger in the shadows. He was most at ease recording with his musician brothers—pianist (David-Ellington) Sony ATV Harmony Music-ASCAP (Charlie Parker) Atlantic Music Corp./Screen Gems Music-BMI Buddy and bassist Monk—and playing at jazz clubs in his hometown of Indianapolis. 5. Repetition 3:56 13. This Love of Mine 3:51 Montgomery’s self-doubt stemmed from his inability to read music—a perceived shortcoming that made (Neil Hefti) WB Music Corp.-ASCAP (Parker-Sanicola-Sinatra) Embassy Music Corp.-BMI him uneasy whenever he was in studios with polished musicians. “As gifted as Wes was, he really was just 6. Something Like Bags 4:49 14. On Green Dolphin Street 4:31 a country boy from Indianapolis,” said bassist Carter, who also recorded with Montgomery on three later (Wes Montgomery) Taggie Music-BMI (Kaper-Washington) Catharine Hinan Music/EMI Feist Catalog/ Verve releases. “He was mild-mannered, humble, trusting and not verbally aggressive. He really didn’t think Patti Washington Music-ASCAP 7. While We’re Young 2:18 of himself as great—which was absurd, of course, to anyone who heard him.” (Alec Wilder) Ludlow Music/Regent Music-BMI 15. You Don’t Know What Love Is 6:23 Nat and Cannonball Adderley felt the same way. They first saw Montgomery perform in 1959 at one of (Raye-DuPaul) Universal Music Corp.-ASCAP Indianapolis’s many jazz-and-BBQ joints. Montgomery was so spectacular that Nat called Riverside 8. One For My Baby (And One More For The Road) 7:44 16. Beaux Arts 4:39 producer Orrin Keepnews in New York at 4 a.m. to rave. “I said, ‘You got to come out here and hear this (Mercer-Arlen) Harwin Music-ASCAP (Buddy Montgomery) Second Floor Music-BMI man play, with this vibrancy and something entirely new—he’s playing in these octaves,’” said Adderley in a TV interview in the early 1980s. Within days of the call, Keepnews traveled to hear Montgomery for himself and immediately expressed π & © 2013, Concord Music Group, Inc., 100 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. interest. But Montgomery hesitated, requiring Cannonball Adderley to nudge a little—telling Montgomery Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. that he’d never earn enough to care for his growing family by playing local clubs like the Turf Bar and Fearful that Montgomery’s value would slide in the safe confines of his brothers’ group, Keepnews Missile Room. Wes—who was 36 years old at the time—grudgingly agreed. called for another solo session in New York that was akin to Incredible Jazz Guitar. In August 1961, To put Montgomery at ease on his first Riverside record date in October 1959 (The Wes Montgomery Keepnews contracted pianist Hank Jones, bassist Carter, drummer Lex Humphries, and Ray Baretto on Trio: A Dynamic New Sound), Keepnews let him use Indianapolis band-mates Melvin Rhyne on organ and conga. The result was So Much Guitar!, and the move paid off. In December, Montgomery was named Paul Parker on drums. After the session, Montgomery headed home for the holidays, but Keepnews soon best guitarist in Down Beat’s 1961 readers and critics polls. was asking him to return in January for another session. At the start of the August session, Carter recalls being taken aback. “Everyone had heard about Wes’s This time Keepnews shrewdly booked two sessions—one featuring Wes as a sideman and the other as reputation, and when I walked into the studio and saw Hank, Lex, and Ray, I was surprised I had been a trio leader. The results were Nat Adderley’s Work Song and The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes called instead of Sam [Jones], Paul [Chambers], Milt [Hinton], George [Duvivier} or Doug [Watkins]. We Montgomery—an album that showcased all of Montgomery’s skills. Critics heard the guitarist’s moody were in New York, and Orrin had access to any bass player he wanted.” ballads groove and his staccato attack and rhythmic propulsion on swingers. But Carter’s awe soon turned to shock. “After I set up near Wes, I realized there was no sheet music. Several months later, a golden opportunity emerged in San Francisco. Cannonball Adderley was Wes sensed my concern and turned—with that big Gibson on his lap—and said: ‘It’s just music—it’s not appearing there with his quintet, the Oscar Peterson Trio with bassist Ray Brown was at The Black Hawk, hard, man. Me and you got it.” That’s when I knew it was a trap. Wes meant that he and I were going and Wes Montgomery arrived to join his brothers and form The Montgomery Brothers. Keepnews flew out to feed off each other while the rest of the guys backed us up.” to produce a range of Riverside albums—including two with Montgomery as sideman on Harold Land’s Montgomery’s unorthodox style took Carter by surprise. “When Wes kicked off “Somethin’ Like Bags,” West Coast Blues and on Cannonball Adderley & the Poll Winners with Ray Brown. I was caught between an unfamiliar original, unusual voicings and that thumb of his. It was enough to Recorded in May and June 1960, Poll Winners would turn out to be the only Adderley-Montgomery drive you crazy. He was playing that way like I would butter my toast in the morning. I’m saying to myself, joint recording—and a pivotal moment in the guitarist’s ascendancy. Being a poll winner back then ‘What’s this chord, what’s that chord?’” mattered commercially, and in the case of Montgomery, the polls in question were Billboard’s “most But Carter quickly caught on, unleashing a steady barrage of compelling, supportive bass lines. “I promising jazz instrumentalist of 1960” in a survey of disc jockeys and A&R executives, and Down Beat’s was from a younger generation of musicians who could read their asses off,” Carter said. “Then here’s a “1960 New Star Award” awarded by jazz critics. guy who has no training at all but has endless variations with the melody. I thought, ‘I’d better pay In July, Montgomery and his brothers recorded for Fantasy—most likely on loan from Riverside in attention here—I’m going to school for free.’” exchange for Keepnews’s use of Fantasy’s gear while in San Francisco. In October, Keepnews’s recorded On nearly all the tracks—with the exception of Montgomery’s unaccompanied treatment of “While Montgomery in Los Angeles with James Clay on tenor saxophone and flute (Movin’ On), and in New York We’re Young”—Montgomery and Carter functioned as a de facto duo. “On this date, I had to think of my in January 1961 with the Montgomery Brothers (Groove Yard). bass in a higher range—so Wes could hear me. Normally, the bass is in charge of the band’s time. But The swinging siblings then went out on tour. One of their stops in the spring of 1961 was at The Cellar here, I had two roles—to keep time and to influence what Wes played. It wasn’t about me and Wes going in Vancouver, Canada. Included on this CD are the eight original tracks—remastered—recorded at the club at it but what I could play to help this guy get someplace.” in the early hours of Sunday, April 16, after the paying audience had departed. The album’s tracks include four standards—two spirited (“Cotton Tail” and “I’m Just a Lucky So and So”) and two ballads (“One for My Baby” and “While We’re Young”). There also are two breathtaking he immensity of how much Wes Montgomery has to say on his guitar, and of how swift and startling has originals—“Twisted Blues” and “Somethin’ Like Bags”—which exhibited Montgomery’s assured rhythm T been his impact on the jazz world, can be quite concisely summarized by pointing out that Riverside went and conversational chord voicings.