Wes Montgomery - Movin' Wes

Awesome

The guitar playing is some of his most beautiful and mature. It's amazing. And the cheeziness? I actually like it now. It's totally worth it, but I can see where some wouldn't like the arrangements. The orchestra is very good though. November 6, 2007

3 1/2 stars for this cheese sandwich

Wes' playing is always great. The problem with this album is the songs and the arrangements.

Wes shines when he has a great composition to work from. The middle 5 or so cuts on this CD are not impressive compositions, and the brass-heavy big band arrangements border on the kind of camp we heard in Quincy Jones' Soul Bossa Nova for the Austin Powers movies -- but Movin' Wes is cheese without the wink and the nudge. I confess a weakness for Maynard Ferguson's 1970's work, which some might consider cheesy, but I still think it was classier than this stuff. Movin' Wes I and II, Matchmaker, Matchmaker -- I could do without those.

At the beginning and end of the CD, the arrangements (by Johnny Pate) are more appropriate, the songs are better -- it is four or five star material. Caravan really jumps with big band brass, and I defy anybody to stop their toes from tapping. It is only 2 1/2 minutes, but what a blast! Jule Styne's People is a beautiful slow cut, and Wes makes the most of it. The last four songs are a return to the quality of the first two. Making, as I said, a cheese sandwich.

I have nothing against a jazz artist doing a pop record. Is Getz/Gilberto less of a masterpiece simply because it is easy to take, and it sold a zillion copies? Of course not. Wes' later album Tequila is also an excellent easy listening jazz record, but the songs and arrangements are more consistent than Movin' Wes. (I believe Tequila was arranged by Claus Ogerman.)

Movin' Wes would have made a good Extended Play album. Skip the middle, and you've got a very nice, but very short record. December 10, 2006

Nice pop effort, yet jazzy enough for pleasure...

Recorded in late 1964 for Verve, this effort brought Wes Montgomery the backing of three trumpets, four trombones, two tubas, plus piano, bass, drums and percussion. Quite a bit different than his small-group work on the Riverside label. While I like the Riverside release "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery" better than this CD, this one grew on me with each listen. Producer Creed Taylor deliberately tried for a sound that could make Wes and Verve some money, and largely succeeded. Wes made some later Verve recordings which sold even better than this one, but he died less than four years after these tracks were laid down. If jazz-flavored instrumental pop music is your bag, you will love this. December 9, 2006

nothing short of brilliant

This album contains some fine understated guitar work from Wes - He doesn't get the long extended solos of some of his more traditional jazz albums - nevertheless, one gets a magnified look at his approach as he sounds very relaxed against the Creed Taylor arrangements. Wes has the distinction of being one of the few instrumentalists who aren't ruined by this more commercial setting - Charlie Parker is one of the other immortals who strangeley benefitted from orchestration. I am blown away by Wes' octave and chordal work on this as well as some single line play on 'Caravan'. He is the envy of all guitarists! February 27, 2005

Excellent, Per-i-od.

A superb Verve/Creed Taylor recording first produced in 1965.

Much has been said of the so-called 'selling out' of jazzists--Wes was a hard-bopper, originally--and this was to have been his white washing or sell out album. That whole labeling thing, of course, is a bunch of B.S. Even hip hoppers would not mind being accompanied by a full orchestra and rhythm section. This is Wes' first with Verve, accompanied by an orchestra arranged and conducted by the great Johnny Pate: the recording was engineered by Phil Ramone and Creed Taylor.

"Theodora" is pure heaven, and "Born to Be Blue" is simply perfect. But I'm quite sure you'll find favorites among the nice selection presented here....La Barb's "People", Wes' "Moving Wes". The CD is like I said. Excellent, per-i-od.

In the liner notes by Gene Lees, he tells how Wes developed his style of playing. It is said he had an epiphany one day after listening to a Charlie Christian record. So much so that he went out and purchased a guitar and amp post haste and proceeded to strum the darn thing. He solicited the aid of a buddy to show him some chords and he commenced to playing--loudly, clumsily--with the aid of a guitar pick. His wife, being the person that she was, did not share in the epiphany and did not want Wes to be making that noise in the living room. Can you imagine that? So she requested that he move elsewhere in the house. He finds a corner and He plays some more. Nope--still too loud for the lady of the house. So, he turns the amp down a little. Nope, still too loud. So, he turns the amp down a lil more, gets rid of the pick and finds that thumb strumming style we hear in all his recordings. Talk about epiphany!

His wife finally, FINALLY approves and the rest is, as they say, history.

Thank God for that because the next step for ol' Wes may have been out on the curb with nothing but a guitar, an amp and a guitar pick...and no electricity! And we probably would have missed out of his greatness...

So, the moral of the story is, always, always give your spouse one more chance, even if it is hard on the ears.... August 23, 2001

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