In the Beginning CD, Import

No one is superior at exploring, salvaging and polishing sunken jazz treasures in the deep sea than George Klabin and Zev Feldman. “In The Beginning,” packed with thick booklet of rich information and rare photographs together with lavish memorabilia as usually, takes you in the sweaty, hard-drinking crowd in the Turf Club in Indianapolis by traveling beyond the space-time. Quincy Jones’ comment, “I can hear greatness sometimes before the musicians themselves know they have it,” expresses all about this package. Even at the Spire session, seven years before the Turf Club dates, Wes had filled in allotted small spaces with his unique thumb plucking single-tone. Wes, as-yet undiscovered, is genuinely enjoying his play with friends getting along well in his daily milieu. You won’t discern Wes’s signature orchestration of solo yet in this Turf Club live, that is opening with single note choruses before unleashing choruses of octaves and finalizing with choruses of cords. His solo is a single note burn of the highest order, imaginative and joyful, which is all purely hard-bop-inspired.

His tone is distinguishably warm, his phrasing is uncannily fluid, and above all, his tempo is blazingly fast. Listen to Wes’s guitar with stunning speed in “Brazil,” “My Heart Stood Still,” and “Caravan.” Wes supports Pookie Johnson’s ideas with his tender solo. Blowing chord melodies on “Caravan,” and “Six Bridges To Cross” is a foretell of things to come. It is simmering, steaming with confidence and force. Much more striking fact is the consistency with his play throughout the album. “I Should Care,” where other band members lay out, is truly fascinating. Restful guitar sound is nicely matching with Andrews’ firm voicing. On “Ralph’s New Blues” Wes takes up a bass. Buddy’s episode of soothing Wes, who complains of rope-like thickness of bass strings, is heartwarming. Buddy said, “do something good at least you can take it.” Only an elder person within a family could say like this. As a result, Wes left us a good walking bass solo.

Three tracks from the Missile Lounge on Oct. 22. ’58, make us easily imagine Cannonball Adderley’s and Orrin Keepnews’ excitement when they hear their play at the first time eleven months later. A photographer Duncan Schiedt vividly reports witnessing these historical moments in the inserted booklet. “Soft Winds” is a rare recording to capture Melvin Rhyne playing a piano. Wes is galloping with octaves up and down following his single-note solo on “Soft Winds.” A chase with Richie Crabtree is fantastic. On “Robbin’s Nest,” he is heading into choruses of slick octave work and then finishing off his solo with brilliant chord soloing. Buddy Montgomery confirms to Joseph Woodard in the same booklet that guitar as a lead, melodic instrument was a new idea and unusual sound at that time. They played basically bebop.

As to his four compositions collected in this album, “Leila,” “Far Wes,” and “Wes’ Tune” are recorded again for “Montgomeryland (Pacific, ’58,)” which are compiled and re-issued as “Bigginings (BN-LA531-H2)” from Blue Note. For “Leila,” I take this columbia version, which features Buddy’s precise piano solo. A pacific version of “Far Wes” is extended to nearly double length of this columbia version. A pacific version provides fairly spaces for Harold Land and Buddy after Wes. They all perform emotionally imaginative play. I choose a pacific version for these solo. “Wes’ Tune” is compactly rearranged in a pacific version. However, I prefer an enthusiastic play at the Turf Club. The fourth composition “Blues” is very close with the title tune of “Movin’ Wes (Verve, ’64.)” Wes might developed a concept of this tune into “Movin’ Wes” later.

Klabin and Feldman reveal having more Wes materials for their future release to Jazz Times. They won’t fail us the next time also.

After the fine Resonance Records Montgomery release "Echoes Of Indiana Avenue" we now have an even better set of early Montgomery. The mastering and sound restoration is about as good as it can be, from old tapes recorded live with less than optimal equipment. Overall the sound is slightly flat with some loss of depth. But don't let that deter you from this great example of why Montgomery is considered as important as Charlie Christian was in his era. Disc 1 is 69+ minutes, Disc 2 is about 68+ minutes in length. The 53 page booklet has a nice essay on Montgomery and the music with music historian Ashley Khan, jazz writer Bill Milkowski, Quincy Jones, Pete Townshend, and a couple of others all contributing, along with complete track personnel, along with a few period photos. The discs snap inside a tri-fold cardboard package with a slot in the middle for the booklet. The disc trays have period photos of Montgomery and a band on stage, and the packaging includes other nice memorabilia. This is somewhere around a five "star" release--especially if you're an early period Montgomery fan

For fans (like me) of Montgomery's early/mid period, before he went the more commercial route to feed his family this is something to get excited about. Musicians on the live sides, recorded between 1956-58 at various local Indianapolis clubs and at Ervena Montgomery's living room (track 14) on Disc 1, include Montgomery and his brothers, Buddy and Monk (hear The Montgomery Brothers albums or the great band The Mastersounds, with Monk on vibes) on piano (vibes on "Ralph's New Blues") and bass respectively, the fine tenor sax of locals Pookie Johnson, and long time drummer Sonny Johnson, along with local unknowns John Coker-piano, John Dale-bass, and on two tracks Debbie Andrews on vocals. Montgomery puts down the guitar and plays bass on "Ralph's New Blues". Disc 2 has three live tracks from 1958 including the fine Melvin Rhyne-piano, plus Richard Crabtree or Buddy Montgomery--piano, the equally good Flip Stewart-bass, and Paul Parker-drums, also recorded at local clubs. The studio sides from 1955 (tracks 4-8) is a quintet including the same players as Disc 1 Track 1. Track 9 is an unknown band except for Montgomery and Johnson on sax from 1957. Track 10-12, from 1949 recorded at Spire Records, includes Montgomery, Roy Johnson-bass, Douglas Duke-piano, Gene Morris-tenor sax, and Earl Walker-drums, along with Sonny Parker-vocals on track 12. Track 11 has an unlisted vocalist in the post-war blues/r&b style which is actually pretty good.

In a nutshell--this is definitely worth adding to your Montgomery shelf. This set can easily sit next to the previous "Echoes Of..." release, and any other live sets from Montgomery's early period. From "After You've Gone", to "Fascinating Rhythm", to "What Is There To Say?", to "Four" ((played at blazing speed and accuracy), to "Caravan", and on and on, this may be even better than the "Echoes Of..." album. The local players acquit themselves handily (especially Pookie Johnson's sax work, along with Buddy Montgomery's rapid runs up and down the keyboard) on the fine "My Heart Stood Still" for just one example. And that's just Disc 1.

Disc 2 has more great live tunes ("Soft Winds", "Robin's Nest"--with a fast fade-in, "A Night In Tunisia"--a nice version of this workhorse tune--listen to the guitar and drums) that make you wish you were there. The studio tracks have better fidelity but still suffer slightly with a slight loss of depth in the sound from recording techniques of the day. A few high points--"Love For Sale" is another great version with the entire quintet blowing some swinging changes. "Leila" is a ballad that is like a soothing balm to the ears after the up-tempo numbers, with some fine Buddy Montgomery piano. "Undecided" has more fine Montgomery piano and brush work from Johnson. And Pookie Johnson has a very nice solo that makes you wonder why he wasn't more well known. The final studio track, "Far Wes", is good but nothing as great as the best stuff here. This well known tune can be heard on other sets with a typically good Montgomery guitar sound--but I'm splitting hairs here.

Track 9, the live "All The Things You Are" suffers from poor fidelity, but is still listenable for fans--if you own other similar live recordings you've heard worse and you've heard better. Tracks 10-12 are actually pretty decent sounding for the era and have that late post-war jazz/r&b sound so popular then, with the accent on the tenor sax. Montgomery's guitar work is formative here (obviously) and he sticks pretty much to the background, as he does on track 12 "Smooth Evening".

As I said--this is something that Montgomery fans need to hear. Do yourself a favor and put this high on your "to buy" list. You won't be sorry. Hopefully there's more where this set came from.

This is Wes at his best...for that period of time in his early development. Probably early to mid 1950s. These are extremely rare recordings that possibly might have never seen the light of day. These were recorded several years before he became famous with big hits like Bumpin on Sunset and Goin out of My Head. We are very fortunate to have these recordings from the greatest jazz guitarist to ever pick up the box!

I've been a fan of Wes Montgomery's music since the 1970's having first discovered him on his A & M releases. Granted, those A & M releases are not the best of what Montgomery produced; but, I guess, they were as much "jazz" as I could appreciate at the time. Going back and discovering who Wes Montgomery really, really was was instrumental (no pun intended) in altering my ideas about music. These recordings are phenomenal; raw, live Montgomery. Really the best way to appreciate his massive talent.

It's Wes! What more can you say? One of the all-time greats.