To: BluesDuke
unfortunately, the latter verve and the a&m albums are utter dreck (or at least, I wouldn't call them jazz.)
To: Big Guy and Rusty 99
With the Verve albums, it depends. I thought Movin' Wes, Bumpin' and Jimmy and Wes (with Jimmy Smith) the best of the studio efforts; Montgomery wasn't unadaptable to some of those large orchestra settings, but he always sounded more himself with a small group. (On the other hand, you can take just "Bumpin' On Sunset" and can the rest of Tequila, not to mention canning all of Goin' Out of My Head and California Dreamin', except for the final cut on side one, the title of which I can't recall now but it has one of Wes's loveliest pieces of playing...) Which is a lot of why I hoist up Incredible Jazz Guitar or, better yet, Smokin' At The Half Note. I still sometimes wish he had worked more full-time with the Wynton Kelly Trio, those guys sounded as though they were made for each other. The A&M albums are best left unsaid.
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