Back in 2012, Resonance producer Zev Feldman was contacted by Brook Reindollar, who worked with Carroll DeCamp, an Indianapolis pianist and self-taught arranger. Reindollar said he had digital audio tapes (DAT) of guitarist Wes Montgomery that the late DeCamp recorded in Indianapolis. Reindollar had been passed along to Zev by Lewis Porter, a jazzz historian, professor of music at Rutgers University and pianist. That's how most "old tape" mysteries begin today—with an email to record producers or to bloggers about material that has remained on a shelf or in a closet for decades.
Reindollar told Zev that part of the Montgomery tape was recorded in a studio while the balance was live. Fortunately for us, DeCamp in the 1990s had loaned the the analog tapes to educator and saxophonist Jamey Aebersold, who converted them to DAT. Then Aebersold returned the tapes to DeCamp. Not long after, they were destroyed in a fire that consumed DeCamp's entire house. Sadly, any notes that DeCamp had about the tapes and is personnel were destroyed as well. But the DAT survived, thanks to Aebersold. [Photo above of Carroll DeCamp]
Zev was given the tapes and then left to guess about the time frame in which the material was recorded. After multiple trips to Indianapolis, Zev estimated they were from 1957 to 1959. He also tried to determine accurately with whom Montgomery was teamed on the different tracks, a challenge that proved to be impossible. [Photo above of Jamey Aebersold]
The result of all this jazz intrigue is the newly released Wes Montgomery: Back on Indiana Avenue, The Carroll DeCamp Recordings. The two-CD set from Resonance features 22 previously unissued tracks and a 44-page booklet of images and liner notes and interviews. The music is divided into three ensemble sections recorded during Montgomery's trips home to Indianapolis: piano quartets with guitar, piano, bass and drums; organ trio and sextet with trombone and saxophone; and Nat King Cole-style trios with guitar, piano and bass.
Based on the tracks in the first section, I'm guessing they couldlhave been recorded either as a late 1959 warmup for Montgomery's monumental Riverside album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, in January 1960. Or more likely, the tracks were recorded while Montgomery was on tour in late 1960 to promote the album's release. If I had to guess, I'd go with late 1960.
The tracks in the first section include Four on Six, Mr. Walker, 'Round Midnight, So What, The End of a Love Affair, Tune Up and West Coast Blues. The recording of So What puts the Montgomery recording after August 1959, when Miles Davis's Kind of Blue was released. And Four on Six, Mr. Walker and West Coast Blues all are from The Incredible Jazz Guitar from early 1960.
The album's second section also could have been recorded at the tail end of 1959 but I think they are more likely from early 1960, since many of the songs appeared on The Wes Montgomery Trio, released at the end of 1959. The tracks in this section include Jingles, It's You Or No One, Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You, Ecaroh, Sandu and Whisper Not.
The so-called Nat King Cole-style trios in the third section were probably recorded around 1957 or '58. The tracks are Stompin' at the Savoy, It's You Or No One, Opus de Funk, Summertime, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Easy Living, Four, I'll Remember April and The Song Is You.
Album songs that Montgomery plays for the first time are So What, It's You Or No One, Nothing Ever Changes My Love for You, Opus de Funk, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Easy Living and The Song Is You. What makes this new Resonance album special are the different groups playing behind Montgomery and the three phases in which his song choices mature and his playing grows more swinging and relaxed.
On the album, we hear Montgomery's guitar during his Riverside period fully formed. Earlier Montgomery material recorded in Indianapolis and released by Resonance featured a largely straight approach. Here, the guitarist is thoughtfully weaving and bobbing on songs like Tune Up and It's You Or No One, sailing along on The Song Is You and Horace Silver's Ecaroh, and digging in on the ballads 'Round Midnight and Whisper Not.
This new album provides a glimpse of Montgomery on the cusp of superstardom and offers us bridges between Riverside albums in late 1959 and '60, and 1960 and '61. After Riverside filed for bankruptcy in July 1964, Montgomery would move on to Verve, A&M and CTI and, with producer Creed Taylor, change the sound of the jazz guitar.
Wes Montgomery died in 1968.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Wes Montgomery: Back on Indiana Avenue, The Carroll DeCamp Recordings (Resonance) here.
JazzWax clips: Here's a mini documentary for the album...
Here's Mr. Walker circa late 1960...
And here's Tune Up...
