Pat Metheny, a liner-note contributor to this previously unreleased collection of 1966 airshots featuring freewheeling jazz-guitar colossus Wes Montgomery, calls it “a time capsule from another, wonderful musical world”. Resonance Records have unearthed these gems from two broadcast Seattle club nights with former Miles Davis sidemen Wynton Kelly and Jimmy Cobb on piano and drums, and the vigorous Ron McClure (later to work with Charles Lloyd) on bass. The repertoire is unsurprising for the era – hustling uptempo bop-swingers, sultry ballads, a little Latin sashaying. But the improv inventiveness of Montgomery and Kelly (a terrific partnership best known from the iconic 60s albums Smokin’ at the Half Note and Full House) is consistently awesome. Montgomery uncorks tumbling single lines and sweeping chord-melody passages on the staccato Jingles, sounds almost as clangily funky as Chuck Berry on Blues in F, and quiveringly vibraphone-like on What’s New? Radio timing results in fade-outs just as a couple of tracks are getting going, but for Wes buffs, this music is an enticing find.
