Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery - The Dynamic Duo (1967)

I first heard of this album through a jazz sampler CD and later wrote that the "Jimmy Smith/Wes Montgomery album is on my radar..." It was easy to find a copy so the CD was at my doorstep within a couple of weeks. As a fan of both musicians, I've been enjoying it ever since. Not only are we treated to the characteristic stylings of Smith on organ and Montgomery on guitar, there are arrangements by Oliver Nelson, the whole thing is produced by inestimable Creed Taylor, and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder at his legendary studio. It's a little thin on material, but this thing swings and grooves. There was a follow-up album, Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes, recorded during the same sessions and later released in 1968.

Personnel listing plus original liner notes by Holmes "Daddy-O" Daylie.

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "All too predictable"
• CashBox: "a tasty brew of jazz sessions."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #129
• Billboard Jazz: #1
• Billboard R&B: #10
• Record World Jazz: #1

Tracks: As I alluded to earlier, playing ★★★★, selections ★★.

1. Down By The Riverside - traditional African-American spiritual.
2. Night Train - a twelve-bar blues instrumental standard first recorded in 1951 by its writer, saxophonist Jimmy Forrest. Also the track that got me to buy the album.
3. James And Wes - a Jimmy Smith blues trio original.
4. 13 (Death March) - originally written by Gary McFarland for the 1966 motion picture Eye Of The Devil. When I first heard this album, I could've sworn I already knew this tune, but I can't find it anywhere in my collection so my old mind might be playing tricks on me. Again.
5. Baby It's Cold Outside - Frank Loesser tune from the romantic comedy Neptune's Daughter. The song was awarded an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1950. It has somehow been associated with the Christmas holiday as if we don't have cold weather in months other than December, but there are no lyrics on this album so that misconception is moot.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:

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Jimmy Smith

The Best of Jimmy Smith (1988)	Midnight Special (1961)
Keep On Comin' (1983)	Crazy! Baby (1960)
Back At The Chicken Shack (1963)	Houseparty (1958)
Home Cookin' (1961)	The Sermon! (1958)

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Wes Montgomery

Classics, Volume 22 (1987)

A Day In The Life (1967)

Wes Montgomery - Classics, Volume 22 (1987)

Guitarist Wes Montgomery recorded only three albums for the A&M label before his untimely death at age of 45 in 1968:

• A Day In The Life, 1967
• Down Here On The Ground, 1968
• Road Song, 1968

All three albums were recorded at the Van Gelder Studio and produced by Creed Taylor with arrangements by Don Sebesky or Eumir Deodato. This early CD compilation collects tracks from those three albums in addition to five previously unissued selections. Notable musicians on these tracks include Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Hubert Laws, among others.

Most cuts are brief covers of pop tunes with little room for improvisation, but they proved to reach more of an audience and even if Montgomery's old jazz purist fans didn't care much for it, his accountant certainly did. As mentioned in the CD's liner notes by Peter Keepnews of The New York Times, "he was happy to be making big money for the first time in his life." The entire compilation, like most Creed Taylor productions, is easy on the ears and I enjoy all 67 minutes of it.

Following this 1987 edition released as part of the A&M Records 25th Anniversary Series, the compilation was reissued two additional times featuring the same track selection and sequence, but with different album art. In 1991, it was reissued as part of the A&M Gold Series, and again in 1996 as part of the A&M Backlot Series.

Peak on the US Billboard 200 album chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

	Title	Album
1	California Nights	A Day In The Life
2	Windy	A Day In The Life
3	Switchin'	previously unreleased
4	I Say A Little Prayer For You	Down Here On The Ground
5	Yesterday	Road Song
6	Pata Pata	previously unreleased
7	Wind Song	Down Here On The Ground
8	Butterfly	previously unreleased
9	Georgia On My Mind	Down Here On The Ground
10	Hello Young Lovers	previously unreleased
11	Fly Me To The Moon	Road Song
12	Road Song	Road Song
13	A Day In The Life	A Day In The Life
14	Down Here On The Ground	Down Here On The Ground
15	When A Man Loves A Woman	A Day In The Life
16	Eleanor Rigby	A Day In The Life
17	Where Have All The Flowers Gone?	Road Song
18	Know It All (Quem Diz Que Sabe)	Down Here On The Ground
19	My Favorite Things	Previously unreleased
20	Scarborough Fair (Canticle)	Road Song

My top picks today are Windy, I Say A Little Prayer for You, Butterfly, and Know It All.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
A Day In The Life (1967)

Previously revisited in the A&M Records 25th Anniversary Series:

Volume 1, Herb Alpert
Volume 6, Chuck Mangione
Volume 18, Sergio Mendes

Wes Montgomery - A Day In The Life (1967)

Before we get to the music, here's two quick notes about the cover photo: 1) that thing is possibly the most unattractive album cover on my shelves, and 2) somebody who knows about such things has identified the cigarette butts as "unfiltered Lucky Strike and two single Salem cigarettes" if those things are of import to you. A day in the life of a recording studio ashtray, I guess.

Composed almost entirely of pop music covers, this sort of album is typically derided by fuddy-duddy critics that don't know how to sit back and enjoy masters of their craft have their way with good music. And then jazz purists prefer Montgomery's earlier, more traditional jazz releases on the Riverside and Verve labels. Those guys can all go suck an egg. Simply put, this album is immaculately produced by Creed Taylor, beautifully engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, and performed by a fantastic quartet plus orchestra:

Montgomery - guitar
Herbie Hancock - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Grady Tate - drums
Orchestra arranged/conducted by Don Sebesky

I dig the thing (that amazing guitar tone!) and there's some good improv among the taut bossa nova and pop arrangements. My only complaint is that we don't get to hear enough of Herbie Hancock. Alongside what the legendary George Benson was doing in the '60s, this guitar-based instrumental easy listening sort of recording paved the way for later acts such as Earl Klugh and Wes Montgomery superfan Lee Ritenour so I'm grateful for that. This album was a huge seller, staying atop the Billboard jazz albums chart for 35 weeks and didn't leave said jazz chart until November, 1969 (and there were only 20 spots on the jazz album chart in those days). Likewise, over at Record World magazine, it topped their jazz chart for 33 weeks and finally dropped off the chart in November 1969 (also only 20 spots). To be sure, this album soundtracked many, many cocktail parties.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "Montgomery sticks to his pop-oriented bag and remains a winner"
• Record World (★★★★): "an ideal showcase for Wes"
• CashBox: "Jazz enthusiasts should dig this one"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #13
• Billboard Jazz: #1
• Billboard R&B: #2
• Record World Jazz: #1

Tracks:

1. A Day In The Life - the Beatles classic.
2. Watch What Happens - from the 1964 French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, eventually losing to The Shadow Of Your Smile.
3. When a Man Loves a Woman - this tame version, while pleasant enough, doesn't really hold a candle to the Percy Sledge release, but how could it?
4. California Nights - originally released by Lesley Gore around the same time as this release. Gore's single peaked at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.
5. Angel - the only Montgomery original on the album
6. Eleanor Rigby - the Beatles classic.
7. Willow Weep For Me - a bluesy jazz standard written in 1932.
8. Windy - this cover of a #1 hit for The Association became Montgomery's biggest commercial hit when it peaked at #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #10 on the Easy Listening chart.
9. Trust In Me - a popular song from 1937. The "jazziest" song on the album whatever that means.
10. The Joker - a song from the 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None; I was but 15 months old when this album was released.