Am I missing something?

[kh1958]

Jim R -

5 unissued performances showed up on a Wes Montgomery package called "Classics" in 1987 (the dawn of the CD era!) - it was part of an "A&M 25th Anniversary" series of releases. (Carpenters, anyone?) The performances are fairly short (only 2 are more than 4 minutes), but pretty straight-forward. The best is "Pata Pata," but there's also "My Favorite Things" and "Hello Young Lovers." Other than the year, there is no information. Considering what was being released at the time, these are pretty good. Are they the tip of the iceberg? Are there other Montgomery sessions in the A&M vaults? I think the CD I have has come out more recently under a "Greatest Hits" title - should be easy to find.

Thanks for alerting me to this--I found a copy of the 1987 CD this evening. The unreleased tracks sound good. Actually, I like several of the Sebesky arranged songs; Wes sounds so good on these--I don't see how you couldn't like A Day in the Life or Road Song, for example.

[Hardbopjazz]

Thanks for alerting me to this--I found a copy of the 1987 CD this evening. The unreleased tracks sound good. Actually, I like several of the Sebesky arranged songs; Wes sounds so good on these--I don't see how you couldn't like A Day in the Life or Road Song, for example.

Those are my least listened to Wes albums. I know he was out to make money to feed his family at that time, by crossing over to reach a larger audience. I can dig Tiquila, Califorina Dreaming and the other albums around that time on Verve and A&M, but the magic was gone when he did Road Song. His playing didn't do much for me on those 2 albums. I think Wes was the greatest guitarist that ever picked up the instrument across all styles of music.

Remember, it just about two days from his 80th birthday. I will be spinning his entire output to celebrate his life and music.

Edited March 3, 2005 by Hardbopjazz

[Hardbopjazz]

Just wondering for those that have the Verve discography, are there any unreleased session listed in there?

[l p]

what sucks about the wes verve/a&m years is that he recorded in the same studio, at the same time with the orchestras.

if he'd recorded with his rhythm section, and then the orchestra was overdubbed afterwards, then we would probably have a box set by now of wes' verve/a&m recordings without the orchestra.

it's a catastrophy.

those orchestra arrangements are rarely anything less than obnoxious. have to fastforward to wes' solos on practically every track.

[Jazz Kat]

Was Bags Meets Wes on that list?

[mikeweil]

That too is in the Riverside box.

There were some unreleased tracks or takes from some of the Verve sessions on a Japanese LP, but AFAIK all of these were included as bonus tracks on the US CD releases of the respective sessions.

[DMP]

Is there any recorded documentation of his brief tenure with Coltrane? (I know this has been discussed somewhere.) And, reading the notes to "The Incredible.." there's mention of him sitting in with Horace Silver at the Village Vanguard the week of the recording - now THAT would be a good one!

Edited March 4, 2005 by DMP

[king ubu]

And just in case: the Harold Land album is part of the box set, too