Throughout three days in September 1966, two jazz heavyweights – each arguably on the peak of their respective powers – joined forces in Rudy Van Gelder’s well-known New Jersey studio to report a scintillating collaboration for Verve Information. They have been Pennsylvanian organ maestro Jimmy Smith and Indianapolis guitar sensation Wes Montgomery. At the moment, each musicians have been starting to broaden their audiences and seem on the radar of pop music followers: Smith by way of a number of US hit singles, together with the Prime 30 smash “Walk On The Wild Side,” and Montgomery together with his widespread instrumental cowl of R&B group Little Anthony & The Imperials’ “Goin’ Out Of My Head.”
For producer and Verve govt Creed Taylor, combining the skills of two of the top-selling jazz artists on his label’s roster was a no brainer. Taylor introduced in an arranger who had labored with each Smith and Montgomery individually: Oliver Nelson, an alto saxophonist and recording artist in his personal proper who had discovered larger fame as an arranger/conductor and would go on to work on TV and film soundtracks. (His 1961 LP The Blues And The Summary Fact is taken into account a jazz basic).
The primary assembly
Smith and Montgomery had by no means met earlier than the session however have been conscious about one another. Guitarist Russell Malone, who labored with Smith within the Nineties, recollects the organist telling him about their first assembly. “Jimmy Smith was standing out in front of Rudy Van Gelder’s studio, smoking a cigarette, and Wes pulled up in his car,” Malone revealed within the liner notes to the 1995 Montgomery compilation The Verve Jazz Sides. The immaculately dressed Montgomery – carrying the identical swimsuit and hat as within the ensuing album’s cowl photograph – took his guitar out of the automobile after which stated: “You Jimmy Smith?” After Smith replied within the affirmative, Montgomery fired a warning shot. “Don’t start nothin’ with me, man. Because I’ve heard of you, how you mess with guitar players. So don’t start nothin’ with me.’”
Smith had a popularity for being a tough-talking character who might be prickly to work with, so it was comprehensible that Montgomery, a gentlemanly tee-teetotaller whose mates nicknamed him “The Rev” due to his clean-living way of life, was cautious of the organist. As introductions went, this primary assembly didn’t bode effectively, however the ensuing music tells a unique story; considered one of mutual respect the place their totally different musical sensibilities – the searing, flamboyant assault of Smith’s Hammond B3 contrasting with the mellow tastefulness of Montgomery’s guitar strains – resulted in a harmonious musical marriage.
The album
Although some purist jazz followers have been hostile to Smith and Montgomery receiving orchestral backings, believing that the pair have been cheapening their expertise for industrial achieve, Creed Taylor felt it was the one approach he may get jazz on the radio. In an interview with Michael Jarrett for Pressed For All Time: Producing The Nice Jazz Albums, Taylor defined that Montgomery “had to be put into orchestral contexts in order to get the programme director’s attention at radio, to get him out to people who could not fathom the quartet context.”
Scoring for a 13-piece brass and woodwind ensemble that included a number of famous jazz musicians, together with saxophonist Phil Woods and trumpeter Clark Terry, Nelson’s refined backdrops for Smith and Montgomery ranged from a swaggering large band quantity (“Down By The Riverside”) to a finger-clicking bluesy shuffle (“Night Train”), and a cinematic temper piece referred to as “13 (Death March).”
Nelson’s charts didn’t overwhelm the pair or forestall some thrilling jazz improv from going down. The horns usually featured on the intros and outros, leaving house for Smith and Montgomery to indicate their aptitude – and on the distinctive “James & Wes” (a Smith-penned musical portrait of the 2 males), the brass dropped out to permit the album’s two protagonists to serve up a cooking groove in a quartet setting with Grady Tate on drums and Ray Barretto taking part in congas.
The album ended on a seasonal word with a jingly, sleigh bell-driven model of Frank Loesser’s “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”; the perennially widespread much-covered Christmas tune first recorded in 1949 that has usually been carried out as a duet. Smith’s organ and Montgomery’s guitar create a conversational-style musical dialogue earlier than they every embark on virtuosic solos.
Producer Creed Taylor’s perception that the presence of an orchestra would improve The Dynamic Duo‘s audience and encourage radio play paid off handsomely; the album spent 23 weeks in The Billboard 200, America’s pop albums chart, peaking at No. 129. It additionally spawned a sequel album, Additional Adventures Of Jimmy & Wes, launched in 1968 after Montgomery’s premature loss of life earlier that 12 months; its tracks have been all outtakes from the unique 1966 classes.
Although Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery would by no means meet once more inside a recording studio, the three days they spent collectively again in September 1966 achieved outstanding outcomes, producing among the best jazz albums of the Nineteen Sixties.
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