Wes Montgomery

Featuring: Herbie Hancock

condition (record/cover): NM / VG+ (heavy foxing inside gatefold)

Gatefold sleeve. Insert included. No obi.

1966, Creed Taylor at Verve, Don Sebesky writing the charts, and Wes Montgomery playing the hits of the day over a full orchestra. The template that Road Song would refine is already here: state the melody in octaves, play it beautifully, get out. What saves it from wallpaper is that Montgomery could not play a phrase without making it interesting, and that Sebesky's arrangements have real bite underneath the sweetness. The title track, all brooding minor-key drama, is one of the strangest things in the catalogue and one of the best.

Japanese Verve pressing. Sixties orchestral jazz guitar done by the person who could actually justify it.