Wes Montgomery At His Most Incredible

First Time in a Long Time From Stereo Tape—Japanese copy discovered in the tape vault!

The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, with Tommy Flanagan on piano and brothers Percy and Albert Heath on bass and drums, was the album that introduced electric guitarist John Leslie (Wes) Montgomery to the jazz world. It was recorded at Reeves Sound Studios in New York City on January 26 and 28 in 1960, when he was 35 years old. The album is now considered by many fans and critics to be the pinnacle of his recorded studio work, and it has influenced everyone from Jimi Hendrix to George Benson to Pat Metheny.

Montgomery started playing guitar at age 19 after being inspired by a Charlie Christian record. The self-taught jazz guitarist could not earn enough money to support his wife and growing family, so he worked as a welder during the day and performed in clubs at night. All the while he was honing his technique of "thumb picking" with fluid leads and simultaneous octave phrasing, reminiscent of Django Reinhardt. Rumor has it that he used the side of his double-jointed thumb rather than a pick, what he called “bumpin”, because he did not want to wake his kids at night. Whatever the reason, it made for soft soulful music with a warm and mellow tone that set him apart from everyone else.

Wes played with Lionel Hampton’s band for a bit but soon joined his brothers Monk on bass and Buddy on keyboard to form The Montgomery Brothers (aka The Mastersounds), a jazz trio out of Indianapolis. They made a few records together, including one on the Pacific Jazz label in 1957. After one performance, attended by Cannonball Adderley, George Shearing and Lennie Tristano, Adderley was so impressed with his guitar work that he persuaded Orrin Keepnews to sign Wes to Riverside Records.

His first Riverside record was titled The Wes Montgomery Trio - A Dynamic New Sound. (Note: This trio does not feature the Montgomery brothers). Compared to that organ heavy debut, Montgomery’s second record on Riverside, Incredible Jazz Guitar, was bolder and more adventuresome revealing more of his virtuoso playing style, and it received the attention of jazz fans. The album has only grown in stature, and in 2017 it was inducted into the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress for its cultural, artistic and historical relevance.

As a historical aside, three years after this record was released, the business partner of Riverside Records, Bill Grauer, died of a sudden heart attack and in 1964 the company’s catalog was sold to ABC Records (the entire Riverside catalog was then 'cut out' and showed up in the Cornell Campus store when I arrived as a freshman. They were priced at $1.99 and I bought as many as I could afford_ed.).

In 1972 Fantasy Records acquired the Riverside masters from ABC and released LPs on the Milestone label. Later, in 1982, Fantasy created the Original Jazz Classics (OJC) label and released more jazz titles. In 2004 Concord Records purchased Fantasy Records, which included the Riverside catalog and in 2017 the company started the Craft Recordings label.      

This history is helpful in providing a reference when discussing all the various releases of the music on Incredible Jazz Guitar. Along with the original mono and stereo LPs from 1960 (RLP 12-320 and RLP 1169 respectively), the album was reissued on Riverside stateside and in Japan in 1962 and 1966.  It was also reissued again in Japan in the ‘70s.    

Of note, ABC released mono and stereo reissues of the album in the USA and Japan, now named Vibratin’, on green-blue labels (RM 499 and RS 9499ABC). 1973 saw the release of While We're Young, a Fantasy-Milestone stereo two-fer with orange labels that features the album’s music on disc 1 (Milestone 47003). Then there are the 1982 to 2002 OJC vinyl reissues in stereo using the album’s original title (OJC 036), followed by European reissues in various guises.  

Unfortunately, the original master 15 IPS. two-track tape of the Incredible Jazz Guitar sessions has been missing for several decades. To create a working tape, the existing metal parts were used to make what’s called a “mother dub”.  So, starting sometime in the ‘60s or '70s, all reissues, including the CDs, have used this source to master from. The results have been described as everything from dull and murky to boxed in with occasional dropouts. The 2013 Fantasy/Riverside Records SACD, which plays in mono, is also somewhat less than stellar when it comes to sound quality. It’s no wonder Chad Kassem did not release this album as part of his AP Fantasy Top 100 Jazz 45 series in 2007.

Fortunately, I found a reasonably clean 1960 U.S. first pressing in stereo (RLP 1169) a few years ago, and when Tracking Angle received news from Craft Recordings of a newly discovered tape copy, we were hopeful that an easily available reissue would be available so fans could hear this album the way it was intended.

Mark Piro, director of A&R for Craft Recordings reported, “In my initial tape research for the project, we had found an international tape copy of the mono version, and we were planning to use that. However, as my search continued, I found that we had a stereo tape copy from Japan. We listened to both versions and determined that the stereo tape sounded better, and that was the version we should use.”

As with previous Craft releases, this 2025 reissue is newly remastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio, with 180-gram vinyl pressed at RTI, and tip-on jackets wearing a CR00850 number and artwork replicating the original. In this case, the original Riverside stereo cover with a blue banner on top was used. The labels also replicate those used on the very first stereo LP with no “Inc.” appearing after Bill Grauer Productions.

OK, let’s get to the sound of this reissue. I’m going to cut right to the chase here. Run, don’t walk and pick up a copy of this record. The music is important enough to be included in any jazz collection, the tunes swing, and the sound quality is better than any other reissue of this title I’ve heard. It’s also digitally available in 192/24 hi-res audio (not reviewed).

I compared the newly reissued LP to my very first Riverside stereo pressing of The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery from 1960 (RLP 1169 with the suffix A/B etched in the run-out area with no RI or 2 at the end). Bottom line: The Craft LP holds its own and then some. Both LPs have a nicely balanced presentation with no evidence of tape damage and a clarity lacking on earlier OJC reissues.

Playing my original stereo pressing, there is a direct connection to Montgomery’s lush electric guitar riffs that stretches across a wide soundstage. The piano is given its own space, and underneath are the acoustic bass and drums, which are less discernable within a deep soundstage, depending on the song. For example, the opening track of Sonny Rollins’ “Airegin”, reveals limitations in the resolution of the rhythm section. However, for much of the rest of the album, especially the dynamic “Four on Six”, the challenging “West Coast Blues” and the inventive “Mister Walker”, all Montgomery’s compositions, the listener is treated to a front row seat to his virtuoso facility. The stereo presentation of the best recorded songs on this original copy allows for enjoyment of the superb backing band with believable room sound, dimensionality, tone, and reverberation, albeit while listening through what is notoriously noisy vinyl.  

Playing the Craft LP, it sounds like a veil has been lifted. The stereo presentation on this Craft LP is slightly narrower, and perhaps less organic, but much better focused. There is a cleaner presentation overall with greater attack and decay to the guitar, more detail to the drum kit with easily heard brush strokes, consistently tighter bass that goes deeper, and a reproduction of the piano that sounds exquisitely clear yet never hard. When I removed the disc from the vinyl inner sleeve and placed it on my turntable, the disc’s surfaces were flat, clean, and play quietly with the occasional tic. It’s a winner – some reviewers might give it an 8 for sound, but I think it deserves a 9, if only for the obvious effort Craft put into this release.  

When he died in 1968 at age 45 of a heart attack, the world was robbed of one of the most important guitarists in jazz history. Now you can buy a stellar sounding, quiet copy of his masterful 5-star album that landed Montgomery the title of “Most Promising Jazz Instrumentalist” by Billboard in 1960.

Interview with Wes Montgomery:

A taste of live Wes:

We are happy to welcome Randy Wells to Tracking Angle. About Randy: Randy Wells is an award-winning journalist and photographer. He is the author of the photo book, Steinbeck’s America, and is a contributor to several travel and automotive magazines. A long-time audiophile and record collector, he first wrote for Michael Fremer in 2012.

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