Search - Wes Montgomery :: Live at Ronnie Scott's

Poorly recorded-wes struugles with a weak rhythm section

Philip J. Lane | miami, florida USA | 05/18/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"first off, in my humble opinion, wes montgomery is the finest jazz guitarists who have ever picked up the instrument. as i like to say, "there's wes and then there's everybody else." as such, i eagerly anticipated receiving this title. unfortunately, it is very badly recorded-sounds like an audience recording at best. i could live with that. afterall, anything by wes live in a club setting with a basic rhythm section (piano, bass ,drums) should be a welcome addition. unfortunately, the rhythm section here (i believe the house band at ronnie scott's) is not very rhythmic or together. wes literally struggles to keep them together, sometimes reverting to comping in the middle of his solos to show the other players where he is in the tune. wes himself is awesome, but the rhythm section players, especially the pianist, are quite weak, often getting in the way or playing wrong changes (at least selecting chord voicings that clash with wes). there is one solo guitar piece though. it alone is enough to send most players (guitar or otherwise) back to the woodshed or to simply just give it up!
wes fans are much better suited buying the wonderful "smokin' at the half note" with wynton kelly, paul chambers and jimmy cobb (miles' rhythm section at the time) providing sensitive accompaniment and outstanding solos. another greaat live wes recording is "full house" - live in san francisco with the aforementioned rhythm section and tenor saxophonist johnny griffin- can't go wrong here!
so, unless you need/want everything wes has done live, avoid this CD or try to find a used copy."

Warmly recorded and Wes playing great in a loose mood

01/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I hope potential buyers of this cd weren't scared off by the other review of this cd. It's an excellent recording. It's not your typical live soundboard recording, but that makes it even better. This is like the best sounding bootleg you could ever hear that makes sterile soundboard recordings seem terrible. You actually feel like you are in the club back in 1965. You hear the tinkling of glasses and a bit of hushed conversation creating a 3-D atmosphere. And even though there is the real life background noise all of the instruments are perfectly recorded and great separation between them all. As for the playing-- It's Wes in a relaxed mood doing what he does best. The backing band isn't the tightest, but that may just be the laid back club atmosphere where everyone is enjoying themselves and having a good time. The backing band is more than competent and Wes is in fine form playing an endless vocabulary of jazz licks on extended jams that most of the tracks contain. If you can't find this new then hunt it down used. Hopefully Amazon will get more in stock again."