Jazz breaking news: Great Lost Wes Montgomery Recordings Discovered
Thursday, December 22, 2011
A long lost trove of Wes Montgomery recordings has been unearthed and will be issued for the first time, US label Resonance has confirmed.
Scheduled for release on what would have been the great guitarist’s 88th birthday on 6 March, Echoes of Indiana Avenue has been produced by Zev Feldman containing the tracks ‘Diablo’s Dance’, ‘Round Midnight’, ‘Straight No Chaser’, ‘Nica’s Dream’, ‘Darn That Dream’, ‘Take The A Train’, ‘Misty’, ‘Body And Soul’, and ‘After Hours Blues (Improvisation)’.
A significant historic release by any yardstick, it’s the first full album of previously unheard Montgomery music to surface in over 25 years, according to the label.
The tracks were recorded partly at a club called the Hub Bub in Montgomery’s home town of Indianapolis and also in the studio.
The story of their coming to light begins nearly five years ago when Michael Cuscuna got a “flurry of emails” about a cache of unissued Montgomery tapes being offered on eBay.
Understandably interested Cuscuna called the owner of the tapes, snapped them up and began discussions with the Montgomery estate.
Working out that the tapes date back to the late 1950s, in fact between 1957 and 1958, Cuscuna then talked to Resonance about issuing the historic material. In the extensive notes the album is to be issued with comments by fellow guitarist and Montgomery admirer Pat Martino are also included. He says: “We now have the release of an amazing collection of moments. Nine precious tracks where Wes unfolds again, and again. It’s surprising they weren’t shared at the time of their recording, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be, and in a sense that makes them even more valuable.”
The collective personnel on the tracks with Wes Montgomery on guitar are his brothers Monk Montgomery on bass, Buddy Montgomery on piano, Mingo Jones, on bass, Earl Van Riper piano, Sonny Johnson, drums, Melvin Rhyne, piano and organ, and Paul Parker, drums – with one unknown bassist also featuring. Echoes of Indiana Avenue as well as being issued on CD and digital will also appear as a set of two vinyl 12” LPs mastered by Bernie Grundman at 45rpm.
– Stephen Graham