The Art of Wes Montgomery - Boss Guitar

This very cool old film is new to me but probably some of you guys have seen it before. It's 1965 and I think Wes is in Belgium with a studio band. It's just very cool to watch them work out tunes. The Belgian musicians seem to me to be very high calibre, maybe even the equal of some of the best US jazz cats of the day. Anyway, Wes looks genuinely pleased and happy with the jam. He's so damn cool and effortlessly musical. What a treat to be able to watch him play.

And how come, to my ear at least, this live recording from almost 50 years ago sounds like they knew more about how to get a great live recording than a lot of what I hear nowadays? Am I delusional about that?:shock:

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Yes - awesome clip! He did a bunch of Euro TV in 1965. There's stuff from England and France as well.

As to the recording ... no, you're not delusional. Live recording was better then because 1) that's all there was for jazz, 2) the guys doing it were of the absolute HIGHEST caliber of sound engineer and 3) the musicians were very used to being recorded in that way and you absolutely adjust your individual tone and attack for a 'band' recording session whether it's a recording studio or a TV studio.

Nice link thx. Wes looks so relaxed with his fretting it's inspiring to take in.

The musicians were Dutch I think - at least Im pretty sure thats Han Bennink on drums..
I was watching some of Sinatra's TV series not long ago..that would have to have been all live right? Orchestra, Big Band , Frank as clear as a bell. Everything sounded crystal clear - what happened!!??

What a gem. Thanks for sharing.

What amp is that behind him next to the drummer?

Fender? Univox?

Definately not a polytone.... :o)

Sweet!

Thank you!

I don't know but in the states he was famous for using Standel amps.

*That series "Icon Jazz" has a bunch of great jazz DVD's - Evans, Trane, etc.

Wow, thanks for posting!

The musicians were Dutch I think - at least Im pretty sure thats Han Bennink on drums..
I was watching some of Sinatra's TV series not long ago..that would have to have been all live right? Orchestra, Big Band , Frank as clear as a bell. Everything sounded crystal clear - what happened!!??

I know...what happened?!! It's strange. A live recording of Neil Young at Massey Hall in Toronto came out a couple years ago. The performance is from 1971 and the live sound is fantastic. The sound of his Martin guitar is one of the best recorded acoustic guitar sounds I've ever heard. They knew how to mic and record acoustic instruments then. I don't know what has changed or what knowledge has been lost over the years but the sound of live recordings is just not at the same standard that it once was it seems.

IMO ... 'most' modern recording sounds like a$$ - live or studio.

On the subject of good quality recordings of the past compared with crappy sounding recent stuff... could it be down to the advent of digital recording and signal processing? Just asking.

I am going to finish watching this later tonight. And NO, as others have pointed out you are NOT delusional at all. I have hearing problems and I have quit listening to OR buying anything CD or DVD that is recent because I simply cannot pick out/hear what is supposed to be "music" and seperate it from the garbage that is the overall "package". Award shows?? forget about it....

I have the same complaint with trying to watch a rented movie, and we have what is supposed to be a relatively hi-tech theater sound system hooked up.

This video of Wes is like a breath of fresh air. No pretense, no nonsense, they're there to PICK and and they DO and every little nuance can be heard.

Yeah, I AM a certified card carrying OLD FART.

I want to hear the MUSIC!!! Thanks so much for posting this. Had not ran across this and I WILL look for the others.

On the subject of good quality recordings of the past compared with crappy sounding recent stuff... could it be down to the advent of digital recording and signal processing? Just asking.

No, the gear is fine - in fact most is recorded via the same stuff (sans the tape machines). Mics, pres, comps, etc. are all vintage, nos or boutique/custom.
It's the delivery mechanism that's severely flawed. MP3's through earbuds or computer speakers that most listeners listen on. Hence not a lot of care seems to be given to the whole product.

*I like a lot of modern bands/players/singers/writers but I think 90% of the new records I buy sound sub par. One dimensional with very little dynamic content. Pop, rock, jazz, whatever.

look and weep, oh ye thunderbyrd.

Trivia question:

What highly influential band in the early 70's did the bass player in the final combo (Ronnie Scotts show) play with?
Hint - it's another guitar player's group.

Ah - a fellow Kiwi/Aussie! Kind of...

Rick Laird - The Mahavishnu Orch.

Is he still around?

No, the gear is fine - in fact most is recorded via the same stuff (sans the tape machines). Mics, pres, comps, etc. are all vintage, nos or boutique/custom.

I think the over - use of compression as a tonic to bad musicianship and terrible acoustics has strangled dynamic sensitivity amongst both engineers , producers and musicians - which is of course related to the quality of the delivery medium. If I was going to get philosophical - I'd say listening in general has taken a dive in the last 50 years - and big,big shows have taken dynamic control into technologically dependent territory - its more complex than that though - but I agree - the quality of recordings -and particulalry live TV sound is on the whole - horrible.

Ah - a fellow Kiwi/Aussie! Kind of...

Rick Laird - The Mahavishnu Orch.

Is he still around?

Yes. Though primarily as a pro photographer ...

Richard Laird - http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/3/5/the-jazz-photography-of-richard-laird

No, the gear is fine - in fact most is recorded via the same stuff (sans the tape machines). Mics, pres, comps, etc. are all vintage, nos or boutique/custom.
It's the delivery mechanism that's severely flawed. MP3's through earbuds or computer speakers that most listeners listen on. Hence not a lot of care seems to be given to the whole product.

*I like a lot of modern bands/players/singers/writers but I think 90% of the new records I buy sound sub par. One dimensional with very little dynamic content. Pop, rock, jazz, whatever.

All true, Ken, but I still think that, as a recording medium, live recordings made with gear like U-47s mics and UA comps through 2" tape, non-Dolby, have a glorious and unmistakable presence. Unfortunately, the background hiss of this method, which is very audible at the beginning of this Wes Montgomery clip, for instance, make this type of recording unacceptable for today's tastes.

Another great example of the presence of great live in the studio, straight to tape sound is Tom Waits' Blue Valentine.

Great video. I have the Jazz icons DVD and it's very much a favourite!

And how come, to my ear at least, this live recording from almost 50 years ago sounds like they knew more about how to get a great live recording than a lot of what I hear nowadays? Am I delusional about that?:shock:


I don't think you're delusional at all, I think it's simplicity. How many preamps, compressors, echos, instruments etc are going there? Uh 4 instruments and board preamps. Plus the talent is much better on the engineering side-as Klasaine mentioned. That was when bands worked at a band sound (or musicians did) in rehearsal and live performance instead of crafting a sound in a studio and trying to recreate it. I think it really comes down by simplicity.

Great clip!

It's interesting for me to hear some of the comments on why the recorded sound is so different today as to 50 years ago. I know very little about that end of things.

All I know is there is a beautiful immediacy and intimacy to so much of the old recordings like in the Wes documentary. Even electric instruments and amplified acoustic instruments like a singer's voice seem to have a purer acoustic quality to them that I don't hear anymore.

Even electric instruments and amplified acoustic instruments like a singer's voice seem to have a purer acoustic quality to them that I don't hear anymore.

That was why I mentioned the Sinatra TV stuff. By modern standards - I really cant imagine it happening today. There is an orchestra and a Big Band off -camera for the most part -all live -and its all a bit loose; But check out the sound - its 1951.
http://archive.org/details/FrankSinatra1951

I'll extrapolate a bit further and say that the musicianship was just better all around up until the early 90's. Why the early 90's? That's when readily available software started to able to FIX ANYTHING. And by the late '99 you were able to use 'autotune' live (for at least one pitch per song) and now you can even tune the inner voice of a chord in real time. Where's the incentive? Especially when 99% of the music is going to be heard thru ear buds if you're lucky and mostly lap-top speakers. "They can fix anything so who cares if I F' up and even if it's brilliant it's going to heard thru a $h1t system".
I can't tell you how many times I semi F' up a take and the producer/engineer says, "don't worry about it, we got it in the previous chorus - moving on".
(a lot of this budget related and better suited for a different thread)

Hardly anyone cares or even talks about music - recorded or live - being beautiful anymore. Maybe T-Bone Burnett?

It's a damn shame that the craft of making music has become antiquated and the end product we hear is about as 'real' as CGI effects on the movie screen. Wes and Miles and Louis and Sinatra and Django and Sarah and Ella and Chuck etc, etc, all did there own stunts. In the endeavour to make a perfectly consumable snack food they've once again removed all the nutrition from it.

Where's the incentive? Thats it. Tough when you are a teacher trying to sing the praises of such great musical performers as Wes or Frank. Its viral and seems to have a lot to do with making musical considerations secondary to everything else.

Its different when we speak of production in terms of somebody like Manfred Eicher, Berry Gordy ,George Martin et al who had 'total' visions for what they wanted from their musicians and the recordings - and negotiated and worked in accordance with that vision - and I hear what Klasiane is saying in regard to the 90's too - these producers did their best work prior to that time (for the most part) imho.

In the endeavour to make a perfectly consumable snack food they've once again removed all the nutrition from it.


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