Music Monday: Wes Montgomery

It’s hard to imagine that over the last two weeks we’ve celebrated both the centennial of Dexter Gordon and Wes Montgomery. The former seemed to always be fashionably out of step with his time (at least by the 1960s when he began to record as a leader) and the latter felt strangely ahead of his day as he laid the foundations for acid jazz, embraced the pop potential of soul jazz, and performed with a sound that still feels a bit like the future (even if it’s a future conjured by the 1960s).

Wes Montgomery’s tragically short life means that we really don’t have very much of him to enjoy (at least comparatively). 

Check out this piece by Paul Mullins and Jordan Ryan on the archaeology and history of music in Indianapolis, Wes Montgomery’s hometown (and where he was discovered). Hecks, if you’re interested in the archaeology of Black community in Indianapolis, check out Paul’s academia page and blog. 

Anyway, take some time this week to listen to some Wes Montgomery.

My advice is this. Check out some of his more “serious work” such as his famous 1960 Riverside date: The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery:

I’m also partial to his 1961 release also on Riverside.

I really dig his 1965 live recording with the Wynton Kelly Trio: Smokin’ at the Half Note in 1965. Do check out the entire set on disc 2 of Impressions: The Verve Jazz Sides (1995) 

Montgomery’s work with Jimmy Smith is legendary and The Dynamic Duo (1966) is a great place to enjoy it.

These last two gems were produced by Creed Taylor who also cultivated Montgomery as a cross over star and recorded a little gaggle of pop albums with him.

I dig his version of “California Dreaming” just like all good people:

And just to be regionally agnostic, I’ll include his version of “Georgia on My Mind” as well:

Finally, it was only after I started to take a bit of a deep-ish dive into Wes Montgomery that I discovered that he recorded an album with Harold Lamb in 1960 called West Coast Blues!. It’s pretty nice and feels a fitting way to end my little celebration of Wes Montgomery’s centennial: