A Listen Up! column by Zen Delta
While hyperbolic album titles often invite ridicule, not a dissenting voice was to be heard when this collection of tunes -The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery - was first released to the world. It was Wes Montgomery’s second session for Riverside and highlighted his many strengths in no uncertain terms. The warm tone of his guitar and astounding speed he achieved using his thumb instead of a pick, his unprecedented octave and chordal passages, the meticulous structure of his improvisations and deep soul of his blues and ballad playing, his memorable compositions and thorough rapport with the rhythm section of Tommy Flanagan and Percy and Albert Heath, combined to catapult Montogomery to the top of both the critics’ and readers’ polls. And forty five years later, I can still say without any doubt, this is the most musical, imposing and perfect jazz guitar album ever record.

My copy is mastered in analog utilizing the 20BIT K2 super coding system and is a limited edition copy of 10,000 copies. The CD is issued on the Riverside Label, Catalogue Number RCD-1169-2.

This entry was posted Monday, September 12th, 2005 and was filed under Jungle News, Listen Up!. RSS 2.0 feed. Trackbacks have been temporary removed.