Wes Montgomery


NEW RESONANCE RECORDS SAMPLERS EXPLORE LABEL’S HISTORIC ARCHIVAL DISCOVERIES

Wes’s Best: The Best of Wes Montgomery on Resonance 
Compiles Choice Tracks by the Jazz Legend

June 21 Releases are Latest in the Jazz Label’s Mid-Priced Series The Takao Fujioka Collection

Wes Montgomery - Wes's Best


Resonance Records, the leading archival jazz specialists, continues their recently inaugurated series of samplers, the Takao Fujioka Collection, on June 21 with a pair of packages devoted to material from their bestselling, award-winning and previously unreleased recordings by pianist Bill Evans and guitarist Wes Montgomery.

Wes’s Best: The Best of Wes Montgomery on Resonance draws from Echoes of Indiana Avenue (2012); In the Beginning (2015); One Night in Indy (2016); Smokin’ in Seattle (2017); and Back on Indiana Avenue (2019). A complete track listing for both packages appears below.  Back on Indiana Avenue was issued for the first time as limited edition two-LP set on Record Store Day 2019, and 3 tracks from the album appear on Wes’s Best.

Montgomery’s Smokin’ in Seattle, culled from 1966 broadcast dates with pianist Wynton Kelly’s trio, was recorded less than a year after 1965’s classic Smokin’ at the Half Note and received similar kudos from DownBeat, JazzTimes, and NPR.

All of Resonance’s albums devoted to Evans and Montgomery have been released with the full cooperation of the musicians’ estates. Zev Feldman, Resonance co-president and producer, says, “It’s been an honor to work so closely with Evan and Robert of the Evans and Montgomery estates over the course of the last 9 years to bring these incredible, unearthed treasures to light. These artists are really in the bedrock of our label, and it’s been remarkable to see the kind of excitement our releases generate in the press and with our fans.”  

Wes Montgomery’s son Robert writes in Wes’s Best, “It’s been a thrill to participate with Resonance Records these last nine years in getting my father’s music out to the world… I appreciate the care Resonance always takes to honor my father’s memory with each release — including interviews and essays about the music and finding rare pictures.”

Like Resonance’s first two compilations in the Takao Fujioka CollectionSing a Song of Jazz: The Best of Vocal Jazz on Resonance and Jazz Piano Panorama: The Best of Piano Jazz on Resonance, released in May – the newly released Evans and Montgomery samplers features the eye-catching artwork and design of Fujioka, editor of the Japanese jazz journal Way Out West; he supplied the cover art for Resonance’s 2016 Stan Getz release Moments in Time.

 Tracks on Wes’s Best: The Best of Wes Montgomery on Resonance:

  1. Jingles (from Smokin’ in Seattle)
  2. Mr. Walker (from Back on Indiana Avenue)
  3. West Coast Blues (from Smokin’ in Seattle)
  4. Four on Six (from Back on Indiana Avenue)
  5. Once I Loved (O Amor em Paz) (from Smokin’ in Seattle)
  6. Wes’ Tune (from In the Beginning)
  7. Li’l Darling (from One Night in Indy)
  8. Going Down to Big Mary’s (from In the Beginning)
  9. Diablo’s Dance (from Echoes of Indiana Avenue)
  10. Nica’s Dream (from Echoes of Indiana Avenue)
  11. Give Me the Simple Life (from One Night in Indy)
  12. ‘Round Midnight (from Back on Indiana Avenue)

Wes Montgomery- In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording
NPR Music – Jan 31, 2018
The New Yorker – Feb 2, 2018
WBGO – Nov 26, 2017
Wes Montgomery- One Night In Indy
JazzdaGama – Mar 1, 2016
Wes Montgomery- In the Beginning 
JazzTimes – Jun 5, 2015
Wall Street Journal – Apr 20, 2015
Wes Montgomery- Echoes of Indiana Ave
Guitar Player PDF – Sep 1, 2012
“Historical Album of the Year – 2nd Place Winner, 60th Annual Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll.” – Jul 5, 2012
The Absolute Sound – Jul 1, 2012
Jazz Warta – Indonesia – click on image to view – Jun 1, 2012
Allabout Jazz – Italy – Apr 9, 2012
New York Daily News – Mar 29, 2012
NPR – Weekend Edition – Mar 25, 2012
Midwest Records – Mar 23, 2012
Guitar International – Mar 14, 2012
Allabout Jazz – Mar 11, 2012
Seattle Pi – Mar 10, 2012
Something Else – Mar 6, 2012
Straight No Chaser – Mar 5, 2012
NPR – A Blog Supreme – Mar 2, 2012
Wall Street Journal – Mar 2, 2012
Black Grooves – Mar 1, 2012
Nippertown.com – Mar 1, 2012
Premier Guitar – Feb 20, 2012
Santa Barbara Independent – Feb 16, 2012
So Jazz Magazine – France PDF – Jan 20, 2012