Complete Montgomery Brothers Studio Sessions + 7 Bonus Tracks

"The Montgomery's enjoy playing. Even when you can't see them, you can hear the smiles." Ira Gitler, from the "Groove Yard" liner notes.This is a great set (76 +,77 +, 79 + minutes each disc) that takes in the Montgomery brother's albums "The Montgomery Brothers", "Groove Yard", and "The Montgomery Brothers In Canada". Included are alternate tracks from these sessions, two quartet tracks (from other albums) "All The Things You Are", and "Summertime" (from '57 and '59 respectively), a '57 track "Finger Pickin'", a '61 quartet date supposedly "live" at The Cellar--with no audience present and no over-dubbed audience applause, and a live set with six tracks from Jorgies Jazz Club from '61, which has previously been issued as "Complete Live At Jorgies" with a total of ten tracks and with a couple of slightly different titles. But not all tracks on the "Complete Live..." are from the Jorgies' date, four tracks are from a '63 session with Wes and a different band plus Joe Williams on vocals.The 22 page booklet has an essay on the music, and the original liner notes (always nice to have), b&w period photos (there's a great double page photo of the brothers on stage at the Five Spot) and color photos of the album covers (also nice to see), plus complete recording information. The sound is very good except for some apparent slight distortion in the guitar on the first tracks Wes plays on, on Disc 1. The live tracks from Jorgies have some small sonic imperfections but are generally good. The opening on the lengthy "Stella By Starlight" is missing and it takes most of the tune before the actual theme is played.If you're unfamiliar with this group the Montgomery brothers are Wes-guitar, Buddy-piano/vibes, and Monk-bass, along with various drummers on the different sessions. There's a lot of good guitar all through these tunes along with some nice piano from Buddy. His vibraphone playing, while not the equal of Milt Jackson (MJQ) is still nice to hear in this setting. And Monk's bass work is steady yet propulsive which really pushes the music along nicely.There's a lot of great tunes here--"D-Natural Blues" (aka "Monterey Blues"), "Buddy's Tune", "Lover Man", "Jingles", "Groove Yard", "On Green Dolphin Street", "All Of You", "Bock To Bock", and "Stella By Starlight" are just a few of the high points. Actually everything here is worth hearing--the arrangements, the guitar work, the seamless playing (listen to Wes and Buddy playing in short unison runs on "Bock To Bock") by the band--make this a great collection of some of the early work by these musicians.Fans of Wes Montgomery will want to hear him in all his glory across these albums (listen to "June In January", a personal favorite as another good example) along with some sympathetic playing from the band. The live tracks add another dimension to the studio playing of the brothers and help to paint a better picture of just how good this band could be. They never seemed to garner the recognition they deserved while they were a working unit, and it's only in hindsight that we can appreciate just how good Buddy and Monk, and (obviously) Wes were when they played together. This 3 CD collection and the 2 CD set "The Montgomeryland Sessions" (under Wes Montgomery's name) gathers up the early music from this talented family. Both belong in any Wes Montgomery fan's library of his music. And if you want to explore further, check out the 2 CD set "The Mastersounds Play", with Buddy-vibes and Monk-electric bass, along with Richie Crabtree-piano, and Benny Barth-drums.

I have reviewed Wes' music a lot on my pages, and I tend to include repetitive history along with my reviews, but I will try to stay on a more focused vein here. For what we already know if we are any kind of Wes Montgomery fans at all, is that he and bass playing brother Monk and brother Buddy were a dynamite ultra tight trio that did three great albums in the late '50's and this spectacular set includes those albums and some additional gems for an incredible price at $16.99!! Consider the shortest CD, the 1st one clocks in at 74 minutes and the two others are close to 80 minutes and of superb quality, and you are getting a helluva lot of bang for your buck. The Montgomery estate has been regularly releasing brilliant albums that had been previously unavailable, and we can be grateful that they recognized the gems they had at their disposal. From "In The Beginning", very raw but delightful collection of live performances by the trio in a dank jazz club in Indianapolis, where a forward thinking student brought a reel to reel tape recorder and got permission to record the set, to "Echoes of Indiana" and the absolutely genius "In Paris" live concert, which as far as I'm concerned is as good as Wes' legendary "Live At The Half Note", and another fine live set called "Smokin' In Seattle", this triple CD is priceless. Being brothers of astounding talent, there may be no greater groove or tightness in Wes' playing ever than with his brothers. That intuitive feel can't be replicated as these CD's aptly demonstrate. There are several standards and some alternate takes, like on "Stella By Starlight", but the alternate takes are spread out so you don't have two or three of the same song on one CD. We are treated to the studio version of "Jingles", which later on the "In Paris" album showed that Montgomery, despite not being able to read music, was capable of incredibly complex yet thrilling arrangements. "Summertime" and "On Green Dolphin Street" have a couple takes apiece, and the third CD features the brothers at a private live performance at The Cellar in Vancouver, B.C., selected for its great acoustics. And the sound from these live takes is indeed brilliant. Wes is the greatest jazz guitarist of all time and his brothers were equally brilliant on drums, piano and quite a bit of vibraphone by Buddy, who proves he could handle the whackers as deftly as he could pound the ivories. This set would be a must have regardless, but it is truly amazing that it is so affordable. We buy a lot of entertainment for more that can't compare to the timeless beauty of this music, so it's an offer lovers of good jazz of any type simply can't refuse.

This is so good, not just Wes but with his brothers. If you're a fan of Wes Montgomery then you will love this just smooth jazz before Wes got into the slightly "pop' song period. A great selection of tracks which covers the all of the Montgomery Brothers tracks recorded. 3 CD's worth of unmistakable music. CD1 13 tracks Time 76.48 minutes/ CD2 14 tracks Time 77.31 minutes/ CD3 10 tracks 79.18 minutes. What incredible value. Also a great and informative booklet is included.