Wes Montgomery's Compromise - Playing Smooth Jazz to be profitable?

**mr. beaumont** · 01-05-2014, 11:11 PM

As I always say...If I KNEW playing smooth jazz would make me money, I'd get my spray tan and linen pants tomorrow morning.

**Patrick2** · 01-06-2014, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by cosmic gumbo

Keef would like to edumacate us on the original rock guitars...

There's just something seriously wrong (ugly) with Keith Richards even wearing a Super 4 . . let along slinging it low like a Les Paul. Sorry . . . but, it's just sacrilegious.

**zigzag** · 01-06-2014, 03:58 PM

The nature of jazz since swing. Even Bird did a Jewish wedding. That's why it's called pop.

If you want to sell something, you got to have something that somebody wants. That's no mystery.

**GuyBoden** · 01-06-2014, 04:07 PM

All of the Wes Montgomery Creed Taylor produced LPs are great, just listen to them and enjoy.

**smokinguit** · 01-06-2014, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by GuyBoden

All of the Wes Montgomery Creed Taylor produced LPs are great, just listen to them and enjoy.

Yes, it is enjoyable stuff, especially if you're on an elevator or at some restaurant brave enough to even play that kind of music. I must admit though there is a few of his later stuff I do like such as bumpin', but that aside, his Riverside dates are his claim to fame for the jazz fans. If wasn't for those Riverside recordings we wouldn't be talking about Wes Montgomery today.

**ESCC** · 01-06-2014, 05:07 PM

[QUOTE=2bornot2bop;388203] . . . Personally, I was 10 when the following recording was produced. This recording brought jazz to a 10 year old's ear and made him hungry to learn more. I'm forever grateful to Taylor and Sebesky for taking the chance to record Wes in a different light.

This was the 60's man...West Coast. Haight Ashbury was all the buzz, less than 50 minutes from my doorstep, and here I was being hipped to music radically different from that of my peers. Sellout? Nahhhh man...a music education is what those recordings were to this 10 year old. They influenced my musical life.

I'm in the same camp as 2bop, in the 60s I was very much into rock - the British invasion as it was called at the time (Beatles, Stones, Kinks,etc). My father, a jazz musician in the 30s and 40s, naturally, shared my love of music and coaxed me into gaining a better appreciation for jazz with Wes Montgomery's A Day in the Life and George Benson's The Other Side of Abbey Road (1970) - I marveled at the arrangements and the interpretations of popular rock tunes on jazz guitar, it was an epiphany. To me it wasn't selling out it was expanding horizons.

**MattC** · 01-06-2014, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by smokinguit

Yes, it is enjoyable stuff, especially if you're on an elevator or at some restaurant brave enough to even play that kind of music.

I was on hold with a utility company today and what should be the on hold music? Those unmistakable octaves in one of those Verve cushions. Didn't recognize the tune, but it was more enjoyable for those 30 seconds than pretty much any other on hold music I've ever endured.

I also prefer the Riversides, but dig some of the Verve stuff, and don't judge Wes in the slightest for whatever reason he made those records. As far as I'm concerned, Wes's only major mistake in life (that I know of) was all the tobacco he consumed. Not judging him for that either (it's an addiction) but I'd be surprised if it didn't contribute to his early demise, which is any case the real tragedy. Anyway, off-topic, sorry. Back to the regularly scheduled thread...

Interesting to read the comments of the guys who heard the stuff when they were kids and had their ears opened up. Nothing wrong with that...

**ronjazz** · 01-06-2014, 11:44 PM

Wes spent about 5% of his live gigs playing "pop" tunes that were radio-friendly after he made those Sebesky records, and every time he did, they became jazz tunes. I saw him 6 nights running at the Jazz Workshop in Boston, and I always requested his originals like Jingles and 4 on 6, which made him curious, and we became friends, but I never questioned his choices, after all, jazz musicians always played the popular tunes of the day, so the sellout label is just the usual purist nonsense generally put forth by those who couldn't make a living playing. It never mattered, he always played brilliantly, and every note was a treasure for the ages.

**smokinguit** · 01-11-2014, 08:40 AM

Originally Posted by ronjazz

jazz musicians always played the popular tunes of the day, so the sellout label is just the usual purist nonsense generally put forth by those who couldn't make a living playing. It never mattered, he always played brilliantly, and every note was a treasure for the ages.

It's not so much a matter of jazz musicians playing popular tunes, nor is it a matter of being a jazz purist. The problem is with the interpretation/approach to the music. Variety was lacking. In Wes's cases he went crazy with the those octaves and almost totally abandon his artistic skills and gifts on his later albums. But having said that I still love Wes Montgomery as one of my favorite musicians of all time.

**ronjazz** · 01-11-2014, 11:01 AM

Whose problem is that, though? Those recordings sold very well, and the fact is, he never abandoned his artistry, he merely focused on a part of it that was needed to finally get materially rewarded for his sacrifices through the years. And in many cases, those well-produced later recordings really showcased his sound, attack and conception, and certainly were a better indication of his "live" sound than the earlier small-budget bop sides.

**Ready** · 01-13-2014, 04:06 AM

Hey, whether you are an artist or a musician it's good to have money

**Jazzism** · 01-13-2014, 04:36 AM

Originally Posted by GAN

Metheny was a first-class A-hole for dumping on the guy the way he did. Especially in light of the fact that Metheny invented Smooth Jazz almost single-handedly.
Sorry...

The difference is Metheny is not a practitioner of Musical necrophilia

**nick1994** · 01-13-2014, 05:45 AM

Some would say that Kenny G exploited smooth Jazz only for profit. The pioneers of fusion didn't know it was going to be successful. They created the music they wanted to create, not for financial gain, and that goes against the morality of a lot of jazz musicians. Pat metheny reacted the way he did because of Kenny G's rendition of "What a wonderful world" in which he overdubbed Louis Armstrong. This insulted Metheny because he felt that Kenny G had made little contribution to the jazz community yet considered himself worthy of Armstrong. I agree with Metheny, Kenny G just exploited the music for financial gain, which seems like a slap in the face to a lot of musicians that aren't as successful yet have made large contributions to jazz.