Wes Montgomery live

[Shrdlu]

I came across this a few days ago

I have always enjoyed Wes, but I enjoyed this more than I expected.

The Netherlands trio (at the start) is my favorite of the backing groups. The pianist, Pim Jacobs, had obviously been listening to Wynton Kelly, and the drummer, Han Bennink, had absorbed the crispness of Philly Joe.

We have been told that Wes was practically a musical illiterate (which I never believed), but this video alone dispels that nonsense. Wes discusses the chord sequence here, and had a wonderful grasp of harmony.

Enjoy!

[Pim]

Yeah this is the Wes I love! Great video. Wasn’t this the same period as he recorded the more commercial Verve recordings with strings?

[Steve Reynolds]

Amazing to see the 23-24 year old Han Bennink with Wes!!

plus I wasn’t aware that Wes played with his thumb like that!
 

 

[Pim]

17 hours ago, Steve Reynolds said:

Amazing to see the 23-24 year old Han Bennink with Wes!!

plus I wasn’t aware that Wes played with his thumb like that!
 

 

Yeah wasn’t that his trademark, the thumb?

[Steve Reynolds]

3 hours ago, Pim said:

Yeah wasn’t that his trademark, the thumb?

I thought it was his sound but now I know where some of that famous sound came from!

[Mark13]

Great footage! The session with the Dutch trio was supposedly taped on April 2 1965 in a studio in Bussum (near Amsterdam)  - in preperation to two concerts Wes played in The Netherlands on April 2-3.

The first of these was a 45-minute radio-concert with Clark Terry (who was to perform with Duke Ellington in Amsterdam later that night) recorded in nearby Hilversum for the public broadcasting organization VARA .That material was made available on cd by VARA Radio ages ago and is excellent as well.

 

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by Mark13

[Mark13]

Liner notes to the Jazz-Icons DVD-release with this material were written by Pat Metheny and can be found on his website.