Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery - Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes (1966)
EAC | FLAC+CUE+LOG+Artwork -> 180 Mb
© 2004 Verve 60th Aniversary Mini-LP, UCCV 9193
Hard Bop | Soul Jazz
Descripstion
Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes picks up where Dynamic Duo left off, digging a little further into the one-time-only Wes Montgomery/Jimmy Smith sessions and coming up with more fine music -- mellower in general than Dynamic Duo but first-class nonetheless. Unlike most of the studio sessions from this time, Montgomery gets plenty of room for his single-string work as well as his famous octaves, and both techniques find him in full, mature bloom, needing fewer notes in which to say more (Smith, of course, is precisely the opposite). All but one of the tracks on the original LP find Smith and Montgomery interacting only with themselves, the drums of Grady Tate, and the congas of Ray Barretto; Roger Miller's "King of the Road" (not often covered by jazzers) and Montgomery's "O.G.D." (later known as "Road Song") come off best. Oliver Nelson's big band makes a sole appearance with a swaggering chart of "Milestones." Though Dynamic Duo is probably the priority purchase by a hairsbreadth margin, you'll need to have both that album and Further Adventures eventually.
Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery - The Dynamic Duo (1966)
EAC | FLAC+CUE+LOG+Full Artwork -> 270 Mb
© 1997 Verve Master Edition 314521445-2
Hard Bop | Jazz-Funk | Soul Jazz | Crossover Jazz
Descripstion
Creed Taylor matched two of his most famous artists, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith, on this session (Montgomery's last for Verve), and the results are incendiary -- a near-ideal meeting of yin and yang. Smith comes at your throat with his big attacks and blues runs while Montgomery responds with rounder, smoother octaves and single notes that still convey much heat. They are an amazing pair, complementing each other, driving each other, using their bop and blues taproots to fuse together a sound. The romping, aggressive big band charts -- Oliver Nelson at his best -- on "Down by the Riverside" and "Night Train," and the pungently haunting chart for Gary McFarland's "13" (Death March)" still leave plenty of room for the soloists to stretch out. "James and Wes" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" include drummer Grady Tate and conguero Ray Barretto, with Smith's own feet working the organ pedals. The Verve Master Edition reissue also includes an alternate take of "O.G.D." with Tate and Barretto, a track previously surfacing on a long-gone Encyclopedia of Jazz anthology LP from the '60s -- a neat bonus that makes this the preferred version.
