Wes Montgomery was a self-taught guitarist from Indianapolis – not exactly a hotbed of jazz – who went on to become one of the most influential and popular players in the mid-20th century. Who knows what he might have accomplished had he not died in 1968 at the age of 45 of a massive heart attack? His final album Willow Weep For Me was released posthumously in ’68, and since then only one other collection of Wes Montgomery music has been released, Resonance Records’ Echoes of Indiana Avenue in 2012. That seems to have shaken loose more recordings, the earliest of Montgomery’s career, released this year again by Resonance.
In The Beginning contains 26 tracks on two CDs or three LPs, most of which feature Montgomery as the guitarist in a combo that includes brothers Monk on bass and Buddy on piano, and Alonzo “Pookie” Johnson on tenor sax and Sonny (no relation) Johnson on drums. The bulk of them were recorded live at the Turf Club in Indianapolis, where this group was the house band for at least a couple of years in the mid- to late-1950s, and where Wes perfected his distinctive blend of styles. Also included are three small-label studio tracks from 1949 with Montgomery playing guitar in a non-family group; a few live cuts from Chicago and Indianapolis clubs in 1957 and ’58; and a handful of Montgomery-Johnson Quintet tracks recorded at Columbia Studios in 1955 by a very young Quincy Jones.
One of the real treats is a track recorded at the Indianapolis home of Wes’s sister Ervena Montgomery in 1956, on which Wes plays brother Monk’s electric Fender bass guitar on Milt Jackson’s tune “Ralph’s New Blues,” with Buddy on the vibes, Jack Coker on piano and Sonny Johnson on drums. Dude cooks on the bass guitar! And there are a couple of numbers on which Debbie Andrews sings during Turf Club sessions. She was a sometime vocalist with Duke Ellington’s band; here she sings “I Should Care” and “Going Down To Big Mary’s” with hornman Johnson sitting out.
The excellent liner notes point out that the Montgomery-Johnson quintet turned the Turf Club from a failing concern into the place to go for a night out in Speedway, and from listening to these recordings I have to believe that it was in large part due to the intuitive interplay between Wes and Pookie Johnson. It’s particularly apparent on the first disc’s “Wes’ Tune,” a Montgomery original, but you’ll hear it on just about every track that includes both players. Of course one of the main attractions was watching Wes Montgomery’s hands fly as he played lightning-fast runs, octaves and Django-esque chords using only his thumb where others would use a pick. There’s some amazing uptempo bop here on which this group tears the house down – just listen to them fly on “My Heart Stood Still,” and how the crowd shouts repeatedly during the incredibly high-energy “Brazil” led by Sonny Johnson’s amazing drumming. Ditto an equally up-tempo rendition of the Duke’s “Caravan.”
The sound quality varies but mostly is very good for informal live recordings of the era. What never varies is the quality of the playing from all involved. The Montgomery brothers were geniuses of jazz, and it comes through loud and clear on “In the Beginning.”
The liner notes in the 55-page CD booklet are superb, with contributions from set producer Zev Feldman, jazz historian and journalist Ashley Kahn, Quincy Jones, Pete Townshend, some oral-history-type interviews with musicians, and excerpts from an unpublished memoir by Buddy Montgomery that also quotes Monk Montgomery extensively. Period photos and track information compete what is a must-have set for all fans of the guitar in general and Wes Montgomery in particular.
Here’s a short film about the making of this set:
(Resonance, 2015)
