Spin And Groove

Wes Montgomery is one of those guitarists who ruins everything. Once you’ve heard him, other jazz guitarists start sounding like they’re missing something — that particular warmth, that ease, that feeling of someone who has completely absorbed the instrument and no longer needs to think about playing it. What makes the story even better is how he developed his signature sound. He played with the fleshy side of his thumb instead of a pick, and the reason wasn’t some grand technical decision. He didn’t want to wake his kids at night when he was practising after work. That’s possibly the most wholesome origin story in jazz, and the sound it produced is unmistakable.

This Best Of compilation draws from his Riverside recordings — the period most serious Wes fans point to as his purest work. Before the orchestrated Verve productions, before the pop instrumental albums that brought him mainstream success, there was this: small group jazz, deeply felt, technically extraordinary. I’ve been going back to this record more than almost anything else in the collection lately. There’s something about the way it sounds on vinyl — through the Shure V15 Type III especially — that makes the guitar sound physical in a way that digital formats don’t quite manage.

Who Was Wes Montgomery?

Born in Indianapolis in 1923, Wes Montgomery came to the guitar late — he started properly in his teens, listening obsessively to Charlie Christian recordings and copying them note for note. No formal training. Just ears and hours and that extraordinary thumb. By his early twenties he was playing clubs at night while holding down a day job. For years he was largely unknown outside Indianapolis, which in retrospect seems almost impossible given what the recordings reveal.

Riverside producer Orin Keepnews heard him and signed him for 25 sessions. That relationship produced some of the most important jazz guitar recordings ever made. His second Riverside album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, won him DownBeat’s New Star award in 1960. Everything after that was just confirmation.

The techniques people always mention are the thumb and the octaves. Both are worth understanding. The thumb gives Wes’s tone a softness and warmth that no pick player can replicate — there’s a roundness to the attack, a lack of edge. The octaves are something else: playing two notes an octave apart simultaneously, which creates a sound that’s simultaneously larger than a single-note line and more melodically focused than a chord. It became his signature. You hear four bars of it and you know exactly who’s playing.

He died of a heart attack in 1968. He was 45. The jazz world lost one of its most naturally gifted voices — a man who, according to everyone who knew him, could hear a record once and play it back immediately, note perfect, on the guitar. Whatever he might have gone on to record in the following decades is one of those questions jazz historians avoid dwelling on.

The Riverside Years

The tracks on this compilation come from his early 1960s Riverside period, and they’re built around small group settings. The personnel changes across recordings, but you’ll often find Mel Rhyne on organ — an unusual combination with guitar, but one that Wes made work beautifully. The organ adds a textural warmth that suits the material without overwhelming it.

The standards on this record — “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” “Love Walked In,” “Darn That Dream,” “‘Round Midnight,” “Yesterdays” — are all songs Wes approached with a particular kind of intimacy. He didn’t reinvent them. He inhabited them. There’s a difference, and Wes understood it instinctively. “‘Round Midnight” in particular — Monk’s composition, which every jazz musician has played at some point — takes on a different quality here. Slower, more deliberate, with Wes finding spaces in the melody that other players walk straight past.

“Yesterdays” is another highlight. A Jerome Kern standard from 1933, it has a long history of jazz interpretations. Wes’s version is unhurried and deeply personal. The octave passages arrive in exactly the right moments — not to show off, but because they’re the right musical choice. That’s always the thing about Wes. It never sounds like technique. It sounds like thought.

Tracklist (Side 1)

Why These Standards?

One of the things that strikes me about this compilation is how consistently Wes chooses material that suits what he does best. These aren’t uptempo burners designed to showcase technique. They’re slow-to-medium tempo standards — songs with strong, memorable melodies — which is exactly the kind of material where his thumb tone and his melodic instincts shine most clearly.

A faster, more technically aggressive player might avoid this repertoire. Or they’d play it fast to cover the emotional vulnerability that a slow ballad demands. Wes doesn’t do that. He goes straight into the feeling and stays there. “Love Walked In” — a George Gershwin song, originally from the 1938 film The Goldwyn Follies — sounds like it was written for him. The arch of the melody suits octave playing perfectly, and Wes makes the most of it without cluttering the space around it.

There’s a lesson in that, actually. Less is almost always more in jazz, and Wes Montgomery understood it better than almost anyone.

On Vinyl

Early 1960s Riverside recordings were made with care, and they sound it. The acoustic intimacy of small group jazz from this period translates to vinyl better than it does to any digital format I’ve played it through. Part of that is the nature of the source material — guitar, organ, bass, drums, all acoustic in character — and part of it is what a well-maintained vinyl rig does with that kind of recording.

Through the Shure V15 Type III, Wes’s guitar has a body and presence that’s genuinely physical. You can hear the strings. You can hear the thumb. The attack and the decay of each note is audible in a way that streaming flattens out. And in the quieter moments — the spaces between phrases, the breath between ideas — the record is essentially silent. That silence is part of the experience.

I’d recommend playing Side 1 of this at moderate volume. Not too loud. Let it fill the room without dominating it. That’s how this music wants to be heard.

Equipment Used for This Recording

I ran the Shure V15 Type III on the Technics SL-1200 MK3 for this session, with the Yamaha HA-5 as the phono preamp. The V15 Type III is well matched to acoustic jazz recordings from this period — its low-distortion character and extended frequency response let the natural warmth of the Riverside recordings come through without adding anything on top. The beryllium cantilever tracks with exceptional accuracy, which matters when the groove modulations are as subtle as they are on slower, more delicate material like this.

I’ve played this record through a few different cartridges over the years and the V15 Type III is consistently the best match. Something about the way it handles the midrange — where most of Wes’s guitar sits — gives the tone a presence that harder cartridges tend to flatten.

For more on the Shure V15 Type III’s technical history and specifications: Shure V15-III at Stereophile.

Further Listening

If this compilation opens the door, the essential next step is The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (Riverside, 1960). That’s the record most people point to as his definitive statement. Full House (1962), recorded live at the Tsubo in Berkeley, is equally essential — the live setting suits him particularly well.

For a good overview of Wes Montgomery’s life and legacy, NPR’s profile is one of the better short pieces I’ve read: Wes Montgomery: The Unmistakable Jazz Guitar — NPR. And for pressing details and to track down a copy of the Best Of: The Best of Wes Montgomery on Discogs.