Jimmy & Wes (The Dynamic Duo), initially launched in 1966 on Verve Data, captures the one full-length studio collaboration between Hammond B3 organist Jimmy Smith and guitarist Wes Montgomery. The album will likely be reissued on all-analog 180-gram vinyl on November 14, 2025, as a part of the newly launched Verve Vault Sequence.
Produced by Creed Taylor and organized by Oliver Nelson, Jimmy & Wes introduced collectively two of jazz’s most distinctive voices in an expansive large band setting. Recorded over three days in September 1966 at Rudy Van Gelder’s Englewood Cliffs studio, the periods featured a brass- and reed-heavy ensemble and a top-tier rhythm part with drummer Grady Tate and bassist Richard Davis. Montgomery’s melodic guitar traces and Smith’s fiery organ grooves discover a vibrant setting in Nelson’s tight, punchy preparations — wealthy in harmonic coloration and rhythmic drive.
This system blends originals and requirements, together with Smith’s bluesy “James and Wes” and a reimagined “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” remodeled right into a simmering, minor-key vamp. Nelson’s orchestrations give the album cinematic sweep with out sacrificing the interaction between its stars. The result’s a uncommon assembly of two jazz giants, captured throughout a interval of broad fashionable success, with the added presence of one of many period’s most completed arrangers.
The Verve Vault Sequence presents all-analog 180-gram vinyl reissues of important albums from the Verve, Impulse!, Mercury, and related catalogs. Mastered by Ryan Okay. Smith from the unique analog tapes and pressed at Optimum, every launch combines distinctive audio constancy with meticulous consideration to element — from mastering to jacket replica. The collection highlights each iconic titles and neglected gems from the Fifties via the Seventies. Earlier releases embrace Sonny Facet Up by Dizzy Gillespie and The Composer of Desafinado Performs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, each launched October 10, 2025.
Store the Verve Vault collection now.
