I heard a version of this on the radio and felt like sharing it.
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Wes Montgomery: Impressions
- Thread starter Dr. Cheese
- Start date
I heard a version of this on the radio and felt like sharing it.
Always nice to listen to Wes.
Wes had three brothers who were musicians as well, but his brother Thomas who played drums died young and so he is not well known.
Monk was one of the first to use an electric bass in the world of jazz: Monk Montgomery - Wikipedia
Buddy played vibes and piano: Buddy Montgomery - Wikipedia
Buddy lived in Milwaukee for a while, and I used to go to see him play piano as a piano, drums, and bass trio at a fancy nightclub where he played often.
The three of them collaborated for a while as The Montgomery Brothers: Montgomery Brothers - Wikipedia
Wes had three brothers who were musicians as well, but his brother Thomas who played drums died young and so he is not well known.
Monk was one of the first to use an electric bass in the world of jazz: Monk Montgomery - Wikipedia
Buddy played vibes and piano: Buddy Montgomery - Wikipedia
Buddy lived in Milwaukee for a while, and I used to go to see him play piano as a piano, drums, and bass trio at a fancy nightclub where he played often.
The three of them collaborated for a while as The Montgomery Brothers: Montgomery Brothers - Wikipedia
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My biggest guitar influence, despite not being a jazz player.
Better living through triads!
Better living through triads!
So… this was released in the early 2000s as part of a set of dvds called “Jazz Icons” which featured many famous names from the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Many of them are taken from European tv broadcasts, and as such have much better production values than simple live recordings. If you have a DVD player and love jazz, I HIGHLY recommend tracking them down on eBay.
The Wes dvd is over an hour long and contains British and Belgian TV shows, some with pickup European bands, some with his touring band. There is some song selection overlap which makes for some nice comparison on his improvised solos.
One of these is the tune “Here’s that Rainy Day” this is the one with his touring band which included Jimmy Lovelace on drums and a very young Harold Mabern on piano playing with wonderful control and sensitivity. Wes’ solo starts with some of his stock licks, but winds up with a really beautiful, perfectly phrased melody. Gorgeous.
Many of them are taken from European tv broadcasts, and as such have much better production values than simple live recordings. If you have a DVD player and love jazz, I HIGHLY recommend tracking them down on eBay.
The Wes dvd is over an hour long and contains British and Belgian TV shows, some with pickup European bands, some with his touring band. There is some song selection overlap which makes for some nice comparison on his improvised solos.
One of these is the tune “Here’s that Rainy Day” this is the one with his touring band which included Jimmy Lovelace on drums and a very young Harold Mabern on piano playing with wonderful control and sensitivity. Wes’ solo starts with some of his stock licks, but winds up with a really beautiful, perfectly phrased melody. Gorgeous.
Wes Montgomery was one of the people who moved the goal posts of guitar playing by quite a margin and in the best possible way at the time. Mad respect for the man here, and I do enjoy listening to him once every few months.
Having said that, Monk was the one who blew my mind with the stuff he doing in the early '70s or so. Just wow.
May all the Montgomery brothers RIP, they sure have made an enormous impact on the music as it is perceived today.
My $0.02 only...
Having said that, Monk was the one who blew my mind with the stuff he doing in the early '70s or so. Just wow.
May all the Montgomery brothers RIP, they sure have made an enormous impact on the music as it is perceived today.
My $0.02 only...
I have that Wes Montgomery performance on DVD. It's part of the "Jazz Icons" series of DVDs. I have a bunch of them and they are all really stellar Jazz from the golden era of hard bop ... particularly the two Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers volumes which are both from their late 50's heyday. What I found to be so amazing about Wes Montgomery was how easy he made it look ... just totally relaxed with that magic thumb of his working it. I saw a documentary about him recently and he was a clean living *, hard working, family man who was really a nice guy and was easy to get along with. He also started playing guitar relatively late in life which makes his accomplishments all the more remarkable.
* Although he did have a heavy cigarette smoking habit which was probably what eventually did him in so young at age 45.
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Love his Impressions version. Wes has become a my metaphor for cool and taste. I constantly invoke him to my guitarist when we’re customizing a tune to us and I want him to give it the Montgomery treatment. Even if it’s not his song. I say..
How would Wes do this tune?
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How would Wes do this tune?
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