‘But is it jazz?’ at first seems a bizarre question to ask about an album that includes the mighty Wes, along with stellar names such as Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Grady Tate and Ray Baretto; but it’s one still worth asking, considering how things turned out here.

This strange record was first released in 1967 and was a CTI smash hit, just like Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Wave of the same year. However, Creed Taylor made a rare mis-step with A Day In The Life: for while Wave evoked a gloriously ecstatic shimmering haze, this album just sounds middle-of-theroad with something better and grittier trying to get out.

Things get off to a fantastic start – the title track (a cover of the iconic final tune from The Beatles‘ Sgt Pepper) is smokin’ hot and menthol cool. But by the third tune, a pass-the-sickbag version of ‘When A Man Loves A Woman’ you realise that this is an album with very little jazz content, despite the pedigree of the musicians involved. Part of the blame belongs to arranger Don Sebesky, whose instinct here is to layer as many syrupy strings on everything that moves as he can; but Wes himself must also get a slap on the wrist. Through most of the album, he barely flexes his considerable musical muscles, and sometimes he seems completely absent. Could it be that he wasn't entirely committed to this, his first album for A&M/CTI, as he might have been?

All that said, and despite the heavy hand of Sebesky, the record has its good points – Herbie, Ron, Ray and Grady are excellent, and there are just enough classic Wes laid-back bluesy moments to maintain interest. ‘California Nights’ is cool Latin-tinged exotica, and the album closer, ‘The Joker’, has a fabulous Afro-Cuban groove and some bona fide jazz soloing from Wes. These highlights only serve to demonstrate what a missed opportunity A Day In The Life was.

As one would expect from a record engineered by Rudy Van Gelder and produced by Taylor, the sound is spectacular – and this authentically-packaged, typically excellent mastering (by whom, it doesn't say) from Elemental preserves that. Far from essential, but an interesting oddity for Montgomery buffs.