LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

In his skyrocketing but tragically brief career (his first album as a leader came late in 1959; he died of a heart attack in 1968), Wes Montgomery completely revolutionized jazz guitar. But when first discovered, he was working in the basic guitar-organ-drums "bar band" format, and it remained a setting in which he always felt comfortable and creatively free. His first Riverside sessions (now OJCCD-034-2) and his last (OJCCD-144-2) were in this vein, but the present album- a 1963 date on which he is joined by hometown colleague Mel Rhyne on organ and spurred by a peak performance from drummer Jimmy Cobb- is widely regarded as the most fully effective of its kind.
Track listing:Besame Mucho, Dearly Beloved, Days of Wine and Roses, The Trick Bag, Canadian Sunset, Fried Pies, The Breeze and I, For Heaven's Sake, plus CD bonus tracks Besame Mucho (take 2), Fried Pies (take 1)