Wes Montgomery: The Complete Riverside Recordings

The Complete Riverside Recordings
Box set by Wes Montgomery
Released	1992
Recorded	October 5, 1959 - November 27, 1963
Genre	Jazz
Length	805:05
Label	Riverside
Producer	Orrin Keepnews

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Los Angeles Times	(no rating)

The Complete Riverside Recordings is a box set of American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery's early recordings on the Riverside label. It is a twelve-CD box set and was released in 1992. It contains 157 songs and includes 15 previously unissued performances, six re-edited versions of previously issued numbers and 29 alternate takes. The extensive liner notes by producer Orrin Keepnews and Jim Ferguson, session notes, and photographs. Keepnews and Ferguson received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Album Notes.

The collection covers Montgomery's recordings from 1959 until late 1963 before he moved to the Verve label. The recordings made during this period are considered by fans and jazz historians to be his best and most influential. It includes recordings with his siblings Monk and Buddy, Tommy Flanagan, Nat and Cannonball Adderley, Milt Jackson, George Shearing, Johnny Griffin and many others.

In his Allmusic review, critic Scott Yanow stated, "All in all, there is a tremendous amount of rewarding performances included in this essential set, most of which show why Wes Montgomery is still considered one of the all-time great jazz guitarists."

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Zan Stewart praised the box-set, writing "Time has done little to diminish the elegant charm that Montgomery offered in his ardently swinging improvisations. On a ballad such as "Born to be Blue," he could be relaxed and luxuriant. For a blues, he was straightforward and melodic, never opting for funk cliches, while on the up tempos he displayed a rippling muscularity... a must-have for the jazz guitar enthusiast."

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Wikipedia