The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery

Recording history and tape provenance

By January 1960, Wes Montgomery had already recorded one Riverside album, The Wes Montgomery Trio, in an organ-trio format with Melvin Rhyne. Orrin Keepnews – who signed Montgomery to Riverside after Cannonball Adderley raved about seeing him play in Indianapolis – moved him into a piano-led quartet for this session, pairing him with Tommy Flanagan (fresh off sideman work with Miles Davis), bassist Percy Heath (then also a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet), and Percy's brother Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums. Montgomery played his signature Gibson L-5 unamplified in the studio and used his well-documented thumb-picking technique – developed at home late at night so as not to wake his children with a pick's attack.

The album blends four Montgomery originals with covers: Sonny Rollins's "Airegin," Jimmy Van Heusen's "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," Dave Brubeck's "In Your Own Sweet Way," and the standard "Gone With the Wind" round out Montgomery's own "D-Natural Blues," "Four on Six," "West Coast Blues," and "Mister Walker." "Airegin," "D-Natural Blues," "Four on Six," "West Coast Blues," and "In Your Own Sweet Way" were recorded January 26; "Polka Dots and Moonbeams," "Mister Walker," and "Gone With the Wind" followed on January 28. Paul Bacon, Ken Braren, and Harris Lewine designed the cover around a Lawrence N. Shustak photograph.

The album became widely regarded as the high-water mark of Montgomery's studio career. AllMusic's Michael G. Nastos wrote that it "established Montgomery as the most formidable modern guitarist of the era." The Penguin Guide to Jazz named it to its Core Collection, Down Beat gave Montgomery its 1960 "New Star" award largely on the strength of this record, and in 2017 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry as culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.

The tape story is the thing every prospective buyer needs to understand. At some point after the original pressings – collector consensus points to the 1960s or 70s – the master tape was lost. Every reissue since, including the CD era and the long-running OJC-036 vinyl line (mastered by Gary Hobish, in print in various forms from 1982 into the 2000s), was cut from a "mother dub" made from surviving stamper metalwork rather than the tape – a generation loss baked permanently into the sound, variously described by collectors as dull, boxed-in, or lacking top and bottom end. It's telling that when Analogue Productions built its Fantasy/Riverside Top 100 Jazz 45rpm series in the 2000s, this title – despite its stature – was left out, presumably for lack of usable source material. In 2025, Craft Recordings' engineers located a Japanese-made stereo copy tape in the vault, A/B'd it against what they had, and used it for a new Kevin Gray cut (CR00850) – the first reissue in decades sourced from tape rather than metalwork. It is a copy, not the lost original, and listener reaction has split sharply between those who hear real improvement and those who still prefer a clean vintage pressing or even find an old CD more satisfying. Historical context via Tracking Angle: Riverside co-founder Bill Grauer died suddenly in 1963, and the label's catalogue was sold to ABC Records the following year, adding another layer to the murky chain of custody around the original tape.

One detail worth knowing before assuming every sonic shortcoming here traces back to the tape loss: a direct comparison between an original 1960 stereo pressing and the 2025 Craft cut found the same underlying balance issues on both – drums sounding somewhat distant with audible room noise, and the ensemble passages not especially well-integrated. That suggests at least some of what collectors hear as "compromised" may be baked into the original 1960 recording and mix itself, not purely a consequence of the missing master tape. The 2025 reissue was still judged the better-sounding of the two overall, with brighter, cleaner guitar tone and stronger bass. Not every Discogs reviewer agrees, however: one detailed comparison found the digital OJC CD's more consistent "wide mono" presentation preferable to the 2025 vinyl's inconsistent, more hard-panned soundstaging from track to track – a reminder that "genuinely divided" understates just how split reception has been.

Stereo note

Both mono (RLP 12-320) and stereo (RLP 1169) were recorded and issued from genuine 1960 material – there is no fake-stereo situation here as with some period Riverside titles. The complication is entirely about what happened to the tape afterward, not about the authenticity of the original stereo mix.

Original Riverside pressings (1960)

• Mono: RLP 12-320 – small blue deep-groove labels; the true first pressing carries "Bill Grauer Productions" with no "Inc." following it. Matrix: RLP-12-320 A / RLP-12-320 B, with hand-etched cutting dates (3.21.60 and 3.24.60 on the earliest copies).
• Stereo: RLP 1169 – original stereo pressing from the same sessions, also on Riverside's small blue labels. One collector distinguishes a "blue banner" stereo label as the true 1960 original from a "white banner" variant issued as a quick reissue later the same year – worth being aware of when shopping for an original stereo copy, though this hasn't been independently corroborated by a written source.

A 1967 US reissue retitled the album Vibratin', with entirely new cover art, timed to align with Montgomery's more commercially-oriented Verve era – a genuine historical curiosity rather than a recommended listening copy, since its tape source is unconfirmed and reception ranges from "good to less than good."

Collectors who've compared US pressings against contemporaneous UK Riverside pressings report the US copies have a modest edge in presence, likely reflecting a tape generation closer to source before the master went missing. Given the well-documented tape loss, a clean original of either format is the only way to hear this album free of the mother-dub generation loss that affects every reissue.

The reissue hierarchy

Craft Recordings / Original Jazz Classics (2025) – first tape-sourced reissue in decades

Cat. CR00850 | Format: Stereo, 180g, 2025 | Lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio from a newly located Japanese analog stereo tape copy, plated and pressed at RTI, Stoughton tip-on jacket with obi. This is a genuinely contested release: some listeners call it a revelation and the best the album has sounded since 1960, while others describe it as boxy, rolled-off, or barely different from the old OJC pressings – with a vocal minority preferring an old OJC CD outright. Buy it for the packaging and the fact that it's tape-sourced rather than metalwork-sourced, but go in with tempered expectations.

Milestone "While We're Young" (1973) – a well-regarded twofer

Cat. Milestone 47003 | Format: Stereo (sounds close to mono), 2LP, 1973 | A Fantasy-Milestone two-LP set pairing this album's music with other Montgomery material on orange labels. Several long-time collectors rate its balance favorably against both the OJC vinyl line and the 2025 Craft reissue, describing it as less emphatic in the top end and more listenable overall, despite being sourced from the same compromised lineage.

Original Jazz Classics OJC-036 (1982–2000s) – the known-quantity budget option

Cat. OJC-036 / RLP-9320 | Format: Stereo, various pressings 1982 through the 2000s | Mastered by Gary Hobish, reissued with minimal changes across two decades of Fantasy/OJC pressings. Sounds notably narrower and more forward than a genuine stereo image – several reviewers note it "sure sounds like mono." Reliable, cheap, and easy to find; not a sonic revelation, but a fair way to own the album on vinyl without chasing a considerably pricier original.

Japanese pressings

Riverside issued this title in Japan multiple times – SR-7009 (1962, stereo), MW-2034 (1971), SMJ-6046 (1974, Milestone/Riverside), and VIJ-104 / RS-104 (1984) – but none has developed the kind of dedicated audiophile reputation that would justify recommending one over a US original or the 2025 Craft cut, given that all postdate the tape loss just as the domestic reissues do.

Pressings to avoid

A 2022 reissue on the UK public-domain label Not Now Music (barcode 5060348583332), with alternate cover art, circulates outside the main Discogs master listing. Beyond the expected public-domain sourcing concerns, collectors have flagged factual errors in its back-cover biography, including an incorrect birth year for Montgomery.

Buyer's guide by budget

$ (Budget): Original Jazz Classics, OJC-036 – the cheapest legitimate way onto vinyl, even with its narrow imaging.

$$ (Affordable): Craft Recordings / OJC, CR00850 (2025) – the current pressing, tape-sourced but divisive.

$$$ (Mid-range): The Milestone While We're Young twofer (47003) – secondhand, generally well-regarded for its balance.

$$$$$ (Grail / Rare): A clean original – mono RLP 12-320 or stereo RLP 1169 – still, by most informed accounts, the best-sounding way to hear this recording.

Pressing tier summary

References

• Discogs (master): https://www.discogs.com/master/82207-Wes-Montgomery-The-Incredible-Jazz-Guitar-Of-Wes-Montgomery
• Wikipedia, "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Jazz_Guitar_of_Wes_Montgomery
• Tracking Angle, "Wes Montgomery At His Most Incredible": https://trackingangle.com/music/wes-montgomery-at-his-most-incredible
• Discogs release and community listings for all pressings referenced in the tier table above (original RLP 12-320/RLP 1169, Milestone "While We're Young" 47003, Craft Recordings/OJC CR00850, Original Jazz Classics OJC-036, Japanese Riverside SR-7009)
• YouTube, WCB Jazz Vinyl, "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery: OJC edition": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0am2bbWJ1U0

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