Wynton Kelly Trio, Wes Montgomery, Smokin' in Seattle, 1966

To my mind any live Wes Montgomery that exists in decent sound and has not been circulated commercially until now is a release event of importance. So when Smokin' in Seattle, Live at the Penthouse (Resonance 2029) arrived in my mailbox a while back I was tingling in anticipation. The music, quite well recorded, comes from a couple of radio broadcasts from April 1966.

It is a worthy addition to what we have heard from the excellent collaboration of Wes on guitar and the Wynton Kelly Trio, which of course set the pace with two excellent albums, Smokin' at the Half Note and Full House. On this new release Wynton Kelly has bassist Ron Mcclure on board as well as Jimmy Cobb in the drum chair.

They as you would totally expect swing and smoke with authority for the date. Half of the numbers feature the trio alone, presumably as a warm up. These cuts do not detract from the whole, since of course Wynton was on top of the world then. The remaining cuts bring in Wes. And oh, what a great thing it is to hear more of him in a concentrated live jazz setting.

He is in terrific form, as is Wynton and the trio.

We lost so much when we lost Wes so early. But this music reminds us that we did not lose everything when he took his leave, because of course he left us his recorded output. This fills it in with some spectacular soloing. Do not miss it!