Greatest Hits - Wes Montgomery

 

A Day In The Life

Greatest Hits

Wes Montgomery

Producer: Creed Taylor

Cover Photography: Guy Webster

This recording employs the HAECO-CSG system and may be played either monaurally or stereophonically

A&M Records SP 4247

1970

From the inside (gatefold) cover: He was just getting to enjoy the view from the top, savoring an international surge of recognition to which he had never seriously aspired, when the end came, with a suddenness that stunned the music world of five continents. But it would not be appropriate to wax maudlin over the loss of Wes Montgomery. His personality, like the sound of his guitar, reflected a love of life, an adjustment to the vicissitudes of his profession, the ability to display in each performance whatever emotion were called for by the composition and arrangement; but never a trace of saccharine sentimentality. 

John Leslie Montgomery's career was unorthodox in several respects. It began unusually late; except for two years on the road with Lionel Hampton's band (1948-50), he remained, until his middle thirties, in almost total obscurity, working in his native Indianapolis. When fame caught up with him, the extent of his acceptance was almost overwhelming, particularly by the standards normally applied to a jazz musician. He was at the height of his popularity and had just returned home from a tour when a heart attack ended it all June 15, 1968.

Perhaps "ended it all" is an oversimplification, for Ees' name, far from being forgotten, still is heard daly on radio stations; the legacy of his style remains, not only on his own recordings, but in the performances of the guitarists beyond number who 2ere inspired by him and do their best to emulate his sui generic technique.

In a reversal of Shakespeare's lines, there was no evil done by Wes to live after him, and the good, far from being interred or forgotten, has stayed with us on the best seller charts and on our record players. No pretender has yet occupied his throne with any substantial degree of success.

Wes was in his twentieth year, a married man, before his translated his admiration for Charlie Christian into positive action by taking up the guitar. At first he played in the then accepted manner, using a plectrum and plying single-string lines through an amplified guitar. The style that was ultimately to be associated most closely with him came about by accident.

"The neighbors complained that I sounded too loud," he once said, "so I took my guitar to a back room, turned down the amp, gave up the pick, and began just using the fat part of my thumb. At the same time I stared to experiment with the idea of playing the melody simultaneously in two registers."

Prominent musicians passing through town would catch him at some secluded rendezvous, but the word spread very slowly, In his own view, it was Cannonball Adderley who opened the door for him, by placing an immediate call to a New York record producer. The latter guaranteed him a session, sound unheard, on the strength of Cannon's enthusiasm.

He appeared a jazz concerts in London Madrid, Brussels, Lugano, San Remo. Everywhere he went, a retinue of admirers displayed their friendship and admiration, still marveling that a soloist unable to read music could have added something so completely fresh and catalytic to the evolution of modern guitar.

Though recognition and a certain security were his from the early 1960s, it was not until he began recording with large orchestras that Wes reached out beyond the jazz fraternity to capture a mass audience. It was in such orchestral contexts that he made his last three albums, all on A&M, all produced by Creed Taylor, who played a vital role in masterminding his development as a major recording artist.

Central also to his role as a style-setter was Don Sebesky. The young arranger proved orchestrations that enhanced Wes' statements without ever obtruding. His gift for guiding and sustaining a mood is typically mirrored in A Day In The Life. Note the shivering tremolo of the strings' entry, Wes' gradual transition from Lennon-McCartney to pure, personalized Montgomery.

Georgia, with Herbie Hancock setting the mood, comprised just one chorus and a tag–time enough for Wes to let his own light shine on Hoagy Carmichael's 1930 melody.

Windy, which we all once associated with the Association, is the sort of simple, undemanding melody that leaves Wes free to swing in a jaunty, pretension-free manner. Again Sebesky's string writing is subtly interwoven.

I Say A Little Prayer For You draws rhythmic aid and succor from Wes' frequent recording companions Grady Tate and Ron Carter, on drums and bass. This transmutation of the Bacharach tune is perhaps the most unremitting jazz tack on this set, with the strings entering only briefly a couple of times.

Road Song was originally known as OGD when Wes recorded it with Jimmy Smith. It's one of Wes' most charming originals, with colorful harmonic and melodic contrast in the release of the A-A-B-A chorus.

The baroque treatment of Eleanor Rigby puts Wes through a kaleidoscope of moods and voicings. Yesterday, also Lennon-McCarney, takes us back a century or two to a promo pre-Beatle England; that first half minute gives you no hint of what is to come.

The Percy Sledge hit When A Man Loves A Woman displays several of the elements that guaranteed artistic and commercial acceptance for Wes; his own work both straight and ad lib; the rich, full strings; a triplet tour from Grady Tate.

Scarborough Fair offers a hint of Stravinsky-via-Sebasky, an intriguing rhythmic figure in 5/4 by bassist Richard Davis, and a long, one-chord extension that exemplifies Wes' facility for understatement.

In Down Here On The Ground, Lalo Schifrin's thematic creativity dovetails perfectly with Wes' flair for bringing his own essence, rhythmic and melodic, to any theme. The only non-Sebesky chart here, it was arranged by Eumir Deodato, who for the most part left Wes free to go his own serene, sensitive way.

Wes Montgomery has something to say that had never been said before. It is our good fortune that albums and tapes make it possible for his statements to continue echoing around the world. We shall not, as they say, see his like again. – Leonard Feather

A Day In The Life

Georgia On My Mind

Windy

I Say A Little Prayer

Road Song

Eleanor Rigby

Yesterday

When A Man Loves A Woman

Scarborough Fair

Down Here On The Ground