Feature photo: Freddy Warren
Note: video above plays a track from ‘Smokin’ at the Half Note,’ not the album being discussed here.
An early jazz record purchase of mine was Smokin’ At The Half Note by Wes Montgomery with the Wynton Kelly Trio, because it’s a perfect primer into appreciating the transcendent guitar of Wes Montgomery. The June 1965 recordings that made up most of the album documented a live setting where he absolutely thrived, and backed by a piano/bass/drums unit that was good enough to perform on Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue.
There’s great news for those of us who revere that record, as Zev Feldman’s Resonance Records is set to release more such recordings of Montgomery performing with Kelly’s trio at the same NYC club at around the same time. Maximum Swing: The Unissued 1965 Half Note Recordings offers more audio keepsakes from that venue across several dates later in 1965.
Culled primarily from radio broadcasts, Maximum Swing is a ‘beat the boots’ collection that finally compensates the Montgomery Estate for these wayward recordings. It also cleans up these recordings as much as possible and packages them in a quality layout, complete with informative liner notes from Feldman, remastering engineer Matthew Lutthans and jazz journalist Bill Milkowski, plus insightful interview excerpts from bass giant Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Bill Frisell, Mike Stern and Marcus Miller (whose father was Wynton Kelly’s first cousin). The booklet even contains previously unreleased photos of Montgomery and the other musicians at the famed venue.
It’s not called Maximum Swing for nothing; Montgomery and Kelly’s outfit had by this time developed a tightness where the rhythm is carried out in complete unanimity. Kelly had his good friend Jimmy Cobb on drums and the eminent Paul Chambers on bass, but an illness forced Chambers to be temporarily replaced for most of these recordings by Larry Ridley, Herman Wright and Ron Carter. As they were all capable bassists (especially Carter, of course), they didn’t audibly alter the chemistry.
To be sold as 3-LP and 2-CD sets, Maximum Swing compiles recordings from five separate gigs at the Half Note in the fall of 1965, with only the earliest, September 24 date featuring the Wynton Kelly Trio’s regular bassist, Paul Chambers. But as the album moves through the other bassists (all were pretty low in the mix most likely due to less-than-ideal raw recordings), Montgomery continues to amaze with technique, touch and melodic storytelling, whether by single note lines, block chords or his signature octaves.
His choice of material clearly suited his style, and as much of it were blues, it also was a fine fit for Kelly, one of the finest blue-based pianists in jazz.
The last five tracks of the collection have particulars about them that are not entirely known; the date is pegged at “late 1965” and even after the herculean efforts of Lutthans the sound quality is noticeably inferior to the prior sets. But when you hear Montgomery and Kelly stretch out like they do here, you understand why these tapes had to be included.
To make that point, Montgomery’s perhaps best-known original “Four On Six” appears twice on this collection, both times with Ridley on bass. Like the June 1965 version, Montgomery is circumspect and tasteful for the former recording, while on the ‘late 1965’ tape he is on fire and Kelly leans in harder on his comping (he also gets his own, superb solo turn here).
Across all these gigs, there are so, so many highlights. “Impressions,” which John Coltrane morphed from Miles Davis’ “So What,” became Montgomery’s song when he took it on. I’m quite familiar with his rendition of this song on The Silver Collection – recorded with the same trio and at the same club just a few months earlier – and it’s astonishing to hear him improvise inventively in a completely different way here, but no less exhilarating.
Montgomery’s tremelo’ed guitar “Laura” reminds us of the softer side of his genius, able to gently caress a melody not just with but by caressing the melody but also appropriate tone. “Cariba” is a blues with a Brazilian pulse that Montgomery plays mostly with chords and octaves, but in typical amazing fashion, he figures out endless ways to make them sound interesting where lesser guitarists would quickly find these approaches confining.
“Mi Cosa,” described by Wes himself as a Montgomery original, and he undertakes this gentle ballad on his own, able to craft pretty music effortlessly, playing in service of the song and not for mere chops. “No Blues” is undertaken with a slightly more relaxed, swinging pace than on Smokin’, and more single-note sweetness can be found on “I Remember You,” which swings with authority.
This crisp rendition of “All the Things You Are” is a great showing for Montgomery’s precise and fleet-fingered single-line articulations; later on, Cobb gets to show off his stuff. The ultimate bop workout “Cherokee” becomes a showcase for Montgomery’s fluid, pliable lines that somehow bond so closely to Cobb’s snare.
Kelly displays great melodic development in his piano feature on “The Song Is You,” a song where everyone is stretching out. “Star Eyes” get an Afro-Cuban rhythm treatment from Cobb alternating with a steady swing and Montgomery reels off an extended solo with not a single note out of place.
There’s a reason why Wes Montgomery is endlessly mentioned as one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time, and often as one of the greatest guitarists, period. These newly released recordings will do nothing but bolster those notions.
Maximum Swing: The Unissued 1965 Half Note Recordings will be available on vinyl as a Black Friday exclusive for Record Store Day November 24, 2023 and in general, CD/digital release on December 1.
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