Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Wes Montgomery: The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings

Wes Montgomery: The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings

By Chris May
March 5, 2021
View read count

Wes Montgomery: The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings

Recorded in spring 1965, during

Wes Montgomery

guitar
1923 - 1968

" data-original-title="" title="">Wes Montgomery's sole European tour, The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings presents the guitarist as part of an all-star international octet assembled for a one-off appearance on German television station NDR. The programme was part of a series presenting musicians who did not regularly work together in informal "rehearsal" performances. Montgomery's tour, on which he appeared with both his own quartet and local rhythm sections, has been well documented on official and unofficial recordings. But this is the first time the NDR gig has been released and the audio disc is accompanied by a Blu-ray edition of the studio footage.

Montgomery is at the top of his game and the band is cracking. The four-piece saxophone section comprises Austrian alto saxophonist

Hans Koller

saxophone, alto
b.1921

" data-original-title="" title="">Hans Koller, American tenor saxophonist

Johnny Griffin

saxophone, tenor
1928 - 2008

" data-original-title="" title="">Johnny Griffin, and British tenor saxophonist

Ronnie Scott

saxophone, tenor
1927 - 1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Ronnie Scott and baritone saxophonist

Ronnie Ross

saxophone, baritone
b.1933

" data-original-title="" title="">Ronnie Ross. The rhythm section is French pianist

Martial Solal

piano
1927 - 2024

" data-original-title="" title="">Martial Solal and bassist

Michel Gaudry

bass, acoustic
b.1928

" data-original-title="" title="">Michel Gaudry, and British drummer

Ronnie Stephenson

drums
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Ronnie Stephenson. The line-up had not played together before, although individual members had: Griffin, for instance, had toured and recorded with Montgomery in the US in 1962, and Scott had sat in with Montgomery's quartet when they played his club in London the week before the NDR gig).

Although Montgomery was the titular star of the NDR programme, the performance is conducted as a meeting of equals. Everybody gets to solo—there are high flyers from Montgomery, Solal, Griffin and Ross— and the tunes come from Montgomery ("West Coast Blues," "Four On Six"), Solal, Griffin and Ross, who arranged the horn section. There is also a weighty, slow-tempo reading of

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk's "Blue Monk."

Jazz historians will value this glimpse of Montgomery—and also of Ross, who passed in 1991 while still in his fifties. Ross is one of the near forgotten luminaries of first generation British modern jazz, partly because from 1970 onwards he spent most of his time as a session musician. He made a handful of albums between 1958 and 1968, the last one beingCleopatra's Needle (Fontana), which was reissued by Universal in Japan in 2006. Takeaway factoid... In 1959, Ross gave saxophone lessons to twelve-year-old

David Bowie

vocals
1947 - 2016

" data-original-title="" title="">David Bowie, who lived near him, and years later, when Bowie was producing

Lou Reed

guitar
1942 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Lou Reed's Transformer (RCA, 1972), he got in touch with Ross and brought him into the studio to play the saxophone solo heard on "Walk On The Wild Side."

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

West Coast Blues; Four On Six; Last Of The Wine; Here��s That Rainy Day; Opening 2; Blue Grass; Blue Monk; The Leopard Walks; Twisted Blues; West Coast Blues (Encore).

Personnel

Wes Montgomery

guitar

Johnny Griffin

saxophone, tenor

Ronnie Scott

saxophone, tenor

Hans Koller

saxophone, alto

Ronnie Ross

saxophone, baritone

Martial Solal

piano

Michel Gaudry

bass, acoustic

Ronnie Stephenson

drums

Album information

Title: The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Jazzline Classics

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Stairway To Nirvana
< Previous

Zakir Hussain: The Best Jazz / Cros...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.