KENNY CLARKE

Kenny Clarke (born Kenneth Spearman Clarke, nicknamed "Klook", and later known as Liaqat Ali Salaam, on January 9, 1914 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-died January 26, 1985 in Paris, France) was a jazz drummer and an early innovator of the bebop style of drumming. As the house drummer at Minton's Playhouse in the early 1940s, he participated in the after hours jams that led to the birth of Be-Bop, which in turn led to modern jazz. While in New York, he played with the major innovators of the emerging bop style, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Curly Russell and others, as well as musicians of the prior generation, including Sidney Bechet.

Early career

Clarke came from a musical family, and studied multiple instruments, including vibes and trombone, as well as music theory and composition, while still in high school. While still a teenager in Pittsburgh, Clarke played in the bands of Leroy Bradley and Roy Eldridge. He toured around the Midwest for several years with the Jeter-Pillars band, which also featured bassist Jimmy Blanton and guitarist Charlie Christian. By 1935, Clarke was more frequently in New York, where he eventually moved. He worked in groups led by Edgar Hayes and Lonnie Smith, and began developing the rhythmic concepts that would later define his contribution to the music.

Bebop and the ride cymbal

While working in the bands of Edgar Hayes and Roy Eldridge, Clarke began experimenting with moving the time-keeping role from the combination of snare drum or hi-hat and bass drum to embellished quarter notes on the ride cymbal- the familiar "ding-ding-da-ding" pattern, which Clarke is often credited with inventing. This new approach incorporated the bombs, or syncopated accents on the bass drum, developed by Jo Jones, while further freeing up the left hand to play more syncopated figures. Under Roy Eldridge, who encouraged this new approach to time keeping, Clarke wrote a series of exercises for himself to develop the independence of the bass drum and snare drum, while maintaining the time on the ride cymbal. One of these passages, a combination of a rim shot on the snare followed directly by a bass drum accent, earned Clarke his nickname, "Klook", which was short for "Klook-mop", in imitation of the sound this combination produced.

Clarke himself claimed that these stylistic elements were already in place by the time he put together the famous house band at Minton's Playhouse, which hosted Monk, Parker, Gillespie, Russell, saxophonist Don Byas and many others while serving as the incubator of the emerging small group sound. The combination of the improvised accents on the snare and bass drum, and the sonority of the ringing ride cymbal carrying the time revolutionized the sound and dynamic of the jazz combo. As producer Ross Russell summed up the role of the ride cymbal:

"The vibration of the cymbal, once set in motion, is maintained throughout the number, producing a shimmering texture of sound that supports, agitates, and inspires the line men. This is the tonal fabric of bebop jazz."

Clarke's innovation set the stage for the development of the bebop combo, which relied heavily on improvised exchanges between drummer and soloist to propel the music forward. For this, "every drummer" Ed Thigpen said, "owes him a debt of gratitude."

Modern Jazz Quartet and move to Paris

While playing at Minton's, Clarke made many recordings, most notably as the house drummer for Savoy Records. When the musicians from the Minton's band moved to different projects, Clarke began working with a young pianist and composer John Lewis and vibraphonist Milt Jackson. With the addition of bassist Ray Brown, they formed the Modern Jazz Quartet, or MJQ. The group pioneered what would later be called "chamber jazz" or "third stream", referring to its incorporation of classical and baroque aesthetics as an alternative to hard bop, the bluesier successor to the bebop combo sound which emerged in the mid-fifties. Clarke stayed with the MJQ until 1955, when he began contemplating a move to Paris, where he eventually relocated in 1956. Clarke had toured Europe numerous times going all the way back to a stint in the Army during the mid 40's. He was undoubtedly attracted to the better pay he could earn in France: "Why not stay here?" Ira Gitler quotes him as saying, "I earn a good living- a very good living." It is also possible that, like many African American expatriate musicians and writers, he was attracted to the better social treatment he received there. As soon as he moved to Paris, he regularly worked with visiting American musicians in, as well as forming a working trio, known as "The Bosses", with Bud Powell, also a Paris resident, and Pierre Michelot.

Later in 1961, with Belgian pianist Francy Boland he formed a regular big band, The Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, featuring leading European and expatriate American musicians, including among many others, Johnny Griffin and Ronnie Scott on tenor saxes. The big band, which had been the idea of Italian producer Gigi Campi, lasted for eleven years.

Clarke continued recording and playing with both visiting U.S. musicians and his regular French band mates until his death. Later recordings and reports from live dates continue to bear out the sensitivity and musicality of his accompaniment, the qualities that endeared him to the major jazz musicians of his day.

In 1988 Clarke was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.

Discography

Special Kenny Clarke 1938-1959 (Jazz Muse) with Benny Bailey, Clark Terry, Hubert Fol, Lcky Thompson, Tommy Scott, Art Simmons, Jimmy Gourley, Pierre Michelot
Telefunken Blues (Savoy, 1955) with Henry Coker, Frank Morgan, Frank Wess, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath
Bohemia After Dark (Savoy, 1955) with Cannonball & Nat Adderley, Jerome Richardson, Hank Jones, Horace Silver, Paul Chambers
Jazz Men Detroit (Savoy, 1956) with Pepper Adams, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers
Plays André Hodeir (Philips, 1956) with Roger Guérin, Billy Byers, Pat Peck, Hubert Rostaing, Martial Solal, René Urtreger, P. Michelot
Kenny Clarke, Francy Boland & Co. - The Golden 8 (Blue Note, 1961)
Pieces of Time (Soul Note, 1983) Andrew Cyrille, Don Moye and Milton Graves

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Kenny Clarke...

Kenny Clarke was a highly influential if subtle drummer who helped to define bebop drumming. He was the first to shift the time-keeping rhythm from the bass drum to the ride cymbal, an innovation that has been copied and utilized by a countless number of drummers since the early '40s.

Clarke played vibes, piano and trombone in addition to drums while in school. After stints with Roy Eldridge (1935) and the Jeter-Pillars band, Clarke joined Edgar Hayes' Big Band (1937-38). He made his recording debut with Hayes (which is available on a Classics CD) and showed that he was one of the most swinging drummers of the era. A European tour with Hayes gave Clarke an opportunity to lead his own session, but doubling on vibes was a definite mistake! Stints with the orchestras of Claude Hopkins (1939) and Teddy Hill (1940-41) followed and then Clarke led the house band at Minton's Playhouse (which also included Thelonious Monk). The legendary after-hours sessions led to the formation of bop and it was during this time that Clarke modernized his style and received the nickname "Klook-Mop" (later shortened to "Klook") due to the irregular "bombs" he would play behind soloists. A flexible drummer, Clarke was still able to uplift the more traditional orchestras of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald (1941) and the combos of Benny Carter (1941-42), Red Allen and Coleman Hawkins; he also recorded with Sidney Bechet. However after spending time in the military, Clarke stayed in the bop field, working with Dizzy Gillespie's big band and leading his own modern sessions; he co-wrote "Epistrophy" with Monk and "Salt Peanuts" with Gillespie. Clarke spent the late '40s in Europe, was with Billy Eckstine in the U.S. in 1951 and became an original member of the Modern Jazz Quartet (1951-55). However he felt confined by the music and quit the MJQ to freelance, performing on an enormous amount of records during 1955-56.

In 1956 Clarke moved to France where he did studio work, was hired by touring American all-stars and played with Bud Powell and Oscar Pettiford in a trio called the Three Bosses (1959-60). Clarke was co-leader with Francy Boland of a legendary all-star big band (1961-72), one that had Kenny Clarke playing second drums! Other than a few short visits home, Kenny Clarke worked in France for the remainder of his life and was a major figure on the European jazz scene.

Source: Scott Yanow

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Kenny Clarke: Though the founder of modern drumming had an extensive recording career both stateside and abroad, it's a shame that just not that many of his recordings are available. He can be heard with Charlie Parker on half the tracks on "Swedish Schnapps" (1952: Verve label) and on the legendary Charlie Christian sides recorded at Minton's by Jerry Newman in 1941 (out on any number of labels). 

"Swiss Radio Days" finds Clarke in the company of Coleman Hawkins in 1949 (TCB Records label), with Dizzy Gillespie's big band on "Cubana Be, Cubana Bop" (1947: RCA label), and with the original version of the Modern Jazz Quartet on "La Ronde" (1952: Prestige label). Clarke made a number of great small group sides for the Savoy label in the mid-1950s, including "Bohemia After Dark," "Klook's Clique" and "The Trio," but those items are tough to obtain. 

Thankfully being issued recently is Clarke's wonderful, latter-day work as co-leader of the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland big band, available on "Jazz is Universal" (1962: Collectables label).

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Kenny Clarke

Born Jan 9, 1914 in Pittsburgh, PA

Died Jan 26, 1985 in Paris, France
Kenny Clarke was a highly influential if subtle drummer who helped to define bebop drumming. He was the first to shift the time-keeping rhythm from the bass drum to the ride cymbal, an innovation that has been copied and utilized by a countless number of drummers since the early '40s.

Clarke played vibes, piano and trombone in addition to drums while in school. After stints with Roy Eldridge (1935) and the Jeter-Pillars band, Clarke joined Edgar Hayes' Big Band (1937-38). He made his recording debut with Hayes (which is available on a Classics CD) and showed that he was one of the most swinging drummers of the era. A European tour with Hayes gave Clarke an opportunity to lead his own session, but doubling on vibes was a definite mistake! Stints with the orchestras of Claude Hopkins (1939) and Teddy Hill (1940-41) followed and then Clarke led the house band at Minton's Playhouse (which also included Thelonious Monk).

The legendary after-hours sessions led to the formation of bop and it was during this time that Clarke modernized his style and received the nickname "Klook-Mop" (later shortened to "Klook") due to the irregular "bombs" he would play behind soloists. A flexible drummer, Clarke was still able to uplift the more traditional orchestras of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald (1941) and the combos of Benny Carter.

Source: The All Music Guide

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The Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band
Where it all began

The Kenny Clarke /Francy Boland Big Band claims (through its most eloquent mouthpiece Gigi Campi) to play “any music that is in the spirit of jazz.” It is a pretty wide definition and one that will not offend even those musicians obsessed with the fear of being categorised.

Kenny Clarke we all know about—a drummer who has carved his own place in jazz history. Pianist Francy Boland is a much more mysterious figure—a product of the Royal Conservatoire, Liege, Belgium, whose work was brought to the notice of Count Basie and Benny Goodman by pianist Mary Lou Williams. Francy went to America to arrange for them and for Herman and Gillespie and (we may assume) assimilated plenty.

Boland returned to Europe in 1957. Gigi Campi had been losing his shirt running his own recording company and promoting jazz tours. On Lee Konitz’s dates alone he dropped 10,000 dollars. As Francy arrived, Gigi gave up. But he vowed that if he ever tried again he would find himself a good rhythm section. And here they were—Boland, the great Kenny Clarke (he had just settled in Paris) and bassist Jimmy Woode, who left Ellington to emigrate to Sweden and finished up, like so many at that time, in Paris.

Says Campi: “It was a fantastic section. I knew the moment I heard them together that one day I would start a big band. Then Kurt Edelhagen came to Cologne and played some of the arrangements Francy had written for Basie . . . ” 40–year–old Gigi Campi was born in Cologne of an Italian father and a German mother. (He is based on the city and owns an ice–cream parlour there.) (Cologne had its traditional Carnival and Gigi did not dig carnival time. “Junk music,” he says scathingly.

“So I put on jazz and my place was filled with people who didn’t like the old stuff, either. We gave them Lucky Thompson, Ben Webster, Don Byas, Charlie Shavers—always backed by groups that I put together.” Kenny Clarke was visiting Cologne and listening to Francy Boland’s writing, since Francy was then chief arranger for Kurt Edelhagen.

Gigi set up an octet recording for Blue Note—“The Golden Eight.” Throughout one night, the octet recorded the whole album—“Difficult music”, observes Campi. “In Kenny Clarke’s opinion, it was the best group of its kind that has been recorded in the past ten years.” The pieces were falling into place.

American vocalist Billie Poole was in Cologne in 1961 to open the Storyville Club and wanted to do an album backed by Francy. Riverside agreed to buy the tapes. The studio and musicians were booked—and at the last moment Billie was called back to America by a bereavement. Rather than cancel the session, they decided to record the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band.

How to describe the KC/FB Big Band’s identity? “We are, in a sense, a Resistance band”, says Gigi. “We are shocking people with our music—trying to awaken them. Not with so–called New Sounds. There is nothing new in the sense of tradition. We don’t try to be avant garde. In my opinion, Francy is the only man who really harmonises when he is scoring. The sounds and the colour are between the lines, as it were.” There are others who will confirm that it has the genuine stuffof Protest. Trombonist Nat Peck has played with the band since its inception. “It’s a protest against a situation that has come on big bands of late,” he says. “A lot of people are using bands as a mere projection of their own personality, forgetting the important role that the individual musicians play in an orchestra. It’s no longer Ake Persson on trombone and Benny Bailey on trumpet, but a trumpet and a trombone. An arranger writes a piece of music and it is full of traps and tricks and dynamics. The musicians are so involved with the technical performance that they are handcuffed. They can take no liberties with the music. They are restrained to such a degree that all the warmth and the electricity is lost.” (Click the picture to enlarge.)

Boland, says Peck, has such an understanding of what musicians are, what they mean. Maybe, he concedes, the band has gone to the other extreme—because there is a conflict between the two attitudes. “I’ve heard some people say: ‘Yes, it’s a good band—but there are no dynamics’. Jiggs Whigham sat in while he was working with Edelhagen. ‘Funny band’, he remarked. ‘No dynamics!’ ‘Yes there are’, I said. ‘One is loud, the other is louder’.” Both Nat Peck and Kenny Clare make the point that the music they are called upon to play is very difficult. Says Kenny: “It is going to sound exaggerated, I know, but Francy really writes for the players. He pushes them. Like, he wrote one note for Nat, all on his own; he knew just how Nat would play that note, and it had to be played by Nat—nobody else.

“The whole thing is like that. He writes to make Benny Bailey sound as good as he does. If Benny sounds so good, he is being given room.” They say that they have had some very good lead players in for odd dates. Benny couldn’t break his regular Munich schedule with the Max Greger band to play Lugano so Snooky Young was booked. “He’s one of the finest lead trumpet players in the world—but it wasn’t the same. Yet Don Menza walked right into the band and made it.” The determination to get the right man produced one odd result. For one date they planned a really big band— five trombones and six trumpets. They had to find a bass trombonist and nobody could come up with one. Then Ake Persson came to see Nat Peck. “I’ve got him,” he said. “Listen to this record.” It was a Gil Evans album and there was this fantastic bass trombonist. There was the name on the cover—Keg Johnson. Excitedly, they called Gigi in Cologne. “You must get Keg for this date.” Keg was in New York, but Gigi is such an enthusiast that he hunted down his man by means of a series of transatlantic phone calls. Keg said: “Alright. I’ll do the gig. One condition: Include in my journey a trip to Spain, expenses paid. It’s always been my ambition to go there.” The deal was made.

Nat Peck had a couple of drinks with Keg before the job. Before they started playing, he noticed to his consternation that Keg. was dozing. He nudged “It’s alright”, said Keg.

Well, he didn’t sound quite as great as on the record. Maybe everyone was expecting too much. Later, they said to him: “We heard this album that you did with Gil Evans.” Said Keg: “What album?” “Some of the finest bass trombone playing I’ve heard in my life”, said Nat Peck. “What album?” asked Keg. “That wasn’t me. As a matter of fact, I’m not really a bass trombone player; I had to borrow this thing. I certainly never did an album with Gil Evans on bass trombone.” It was a year before they dared to tell Gigi.

They have a great respect and a great affection for Kenny. Nat Peck has known Klook for twenty years. “We started working together in Paris way back when all the expatriates were going there. His interest in music has always been amazing. He’s been listening to things and doing things and never losing his enthusiasm, even today. He gets better and better all the time.” Kenny is now well over fifty. By the time most musicians get to that age they are a bit disillusioned. Kenny Clarke isn’t. And he never at any time tries to impress any musicians about anything. fie is never anything but calm—and they have seen him in situations that were hair–raising.

“I’ve never met anyone who stayed so calm”, says Kenny Clare. “You should come along to a recording session. All pandemonium let loose. Everybody talking or blowing like a bunch of madmen. You’d think it was a wild social event. Kenny never raises his voice, never gets excited. He’s a wonder.” Nat Peck believes it is something to do with Kenny’s basic philosophy. With guys like these, there’s not really anything you can do to tame them. So forget about it. Take it as it comes, try to get something going. And the miracle always happens when somebody says “One–two–three–four.”  

Kenny Clarke is not widely known for his big–band playing, since the bands he worked with before he joined Dizzy’s great outfit were not issued on record in Europe. “The only record that did him justice”, says Kenny Clare, “was a concert recorded in Paris. It wasn’t issued in Britain, though I managed to get a copy. His time—his actual rhythm playing—is not something that many can do. Gus Johnson has a similar kind of time. So many people would like to be able to get that very springy kind of beat that Klook has. I would. When I’m with him, I can play like that exactly, without even thinking about it. Soon as I’m away from it, I can’t do it any more. Strange. I can’t figure it out.” Kenny Clare got booked with the band originally when Klook got stuck in Spain. Everyone was so impressed that Gigi asked Clare to come back on the next session. It worked out so beautifully that Klook suggested that Kenny become a regular member of the band.

“After that first date”, says Kenny, “they were being nice, really. They gave me a couple of notes on vibraphone that I invariably played wrong. Well, they figured that I’d always be available to do anything that Klook wouldn’t be free to do. I could do sundry percussion. Then one number was a Turkish march thing and I played snare drum. When it was played back it sounded very much together, like one drummer They talked it over. Next time I came would I bring my drums as well? See if we could make it with both of us playing. It worked—and it’s been like that ever since.” Kenny Clarke, they say. might not appear to be a man who feels very involved in what happens in the world outside his music. He keeps pretty much to himself. Yet he has opinions on politics and the world situation—very definite ideas on the great issues.

“He is really a very intelligent man”, says Nat Peck, “And it’s not a superficial intelligence, but something very deep–rooted and something very mature.” They describe Francy Boland as not being a front man in the accepted sense. He is an introverted man and doesn’t speak that much. He doesn’t have a big voice. His authority shows most in his writing—and in the attitude of the musicians toward his writing. According to Gigi Campi, the band is a community. Aside from the obvious differences of colour, the character of every man is in marked contrast to the next. What are they? Catholics, Marxists, Moslems, Zionists, Socialists and Capitalists—a mixture. This was the one aspect of the international band that used to frighten some. With such a mixture is was potentially . . . explosive.

What happened was that it exploded on the stand. The concert in Prague was ridiculous. The programme was supposed to run for 50 minutes. The band played for an hour and forty–five minutes. That included a short encore. The musicians walked off to thunderous acclaim. Kenny Clare went upstairs and changed, then came down for a drink. The audience was still applauding. It must have kept it up for nearly ten minutes.

They say that there are seventeen soloists here, each man a strong individualist. Francy just walks to the front, waves a hand and the band blows. He walks back. The band has its own personality—a composite. It is a projection of seventeen musicians. In different circumstances these men might find themselves in conflict. Instead there is tolerance and respect. And affection. When it comes to music there is no argument. Never.

One might expect to find a man as able as Boland to have his prickly side; or presume his concentration is balanced by or disorganisation on some non–musical level. Instead, he is tidy. Respectable. He is married, has two children. Plays tennis, is a keen photographer. He has never been caught practising the piano or taking pictures of musicians.

He plays tennis at/a certain time; he writes his arrangements at a certain time. He is well–organised and un–temperamental. He has been known to write arrangements in the living room with the rest of the family watching television and the volume full on. Or with his son playing Beatles records.

Benny Bailey observed: “Everything he writes seems so simple, so normal; but just try to dissect his colours and you end up pretty badly: all the secrets lie between the lines.” It is the simplicity, the concentration on essentials, that is his strength. One musician listened to “Lockjaw’s Blues” 16 times and said: “Only now do I know what’s in there—and I still have to take it home and listen some more.

Once, they tried another arranger - and listened to the playback of the tunes. “That’s not our music”, they said. “It’s an imitation of bebop.”

“It is the band of coexistence”, says Gigi Campi. “Everything is so straight. There is no bullshine. It is hard to keep a band like that, because it is hard to keep integrity. There are so many promoters and record producers exerting pressure: “If you come down to this compromise we might succeed commercially . . .

“When we did a waltz album, Francy refused to arrange Viennese waltzes. He said they were written to be played the way they are. ‘Wives And Lovers’ and ‘My Favourite Things’ he did. He said they are waltzes of our time and we can play them our way.”

They have respect for Gigi’s enthusiasm and dedication. “You’ve got to be enthusiastic to do what he’s trying to do. This is the world’s most expensive hobby. He’s got a very good instinct for people—you know, the way he gets the band together.” They allow that Gigi has made just one or two slight mistakes. There was that time that Dusko Goykovich was Haus Verboten at a radio station and the European dep. just did not gell.

Says Gigi himself: “I’m just hooked on jazz. Apart from that. I believe in a couple of things. There is a vacuum on the market—a need for music like this. I consider this a continuation of what Ellington was doing—and I believe in a band as a team. Our music played by another band wouldn’t mean a thing. It was written for this band. When we have to replace a man, as we now have to replace Shake Keane, we almost cry.

 Shake is a member of this band now—with his sound, with his solos, with his humanity.” They have to be coaxed to laud individuals—but driven, they name Benny Bailey as indispensable. “Absolutely monumental.” And Johnny Griffin—“Another monster.” 

They refer to Derek Humble in terms of genius, knowing it to be an overworked word. “Not just his jazz playing. His lead playing is superb.” Ronnie Scott, they say, plays beautifully, and they believe that Tony Coe is going to find the environment one that he will enjoy, and also that it will bring his considerable talents to full development. To use Nat Peck’s words: “He never had the boot in the behind that he’s going to get in this band.”  

By all accounts, Ake Persson is a phenomenal trombonist. Peck has now been working with him for more than five years. “Every time I sit down with him it’s like I’m hearing him for the first time. Thrilling. I’ve never worked with anyone who has stimulated me so much. He makes you try to play up to his standard. The guy is an authentic musician. Everyone that’s heard him agrees. I was talking to J. J. Johnson about him and he was absolutely submerged by Ake’s playing. And that coming from J.J. . . . . He’s a guy who doesn’t say what he doesn’t mean.” 

Tony Coe may be facing an ordeal. Kenny Clare describes his first date with the band as “one of the most frightening experiences of my life.” Of course, he knew who he was depping for. “Before that first number started, I was petrified. I was following a very hard act.” After the first number, the. rest of the band went out of their way to make Kenny feel he’d made it, and that helped him to settle, Ronnie Scott declares that the two drummers complement each other. “Kenny Clare ‘is more Buddy Rich inclined; Kenny Clarke is . . . basic.” Ronnie, as we all know, is a man of shrewd eye and sardonic utterance. And his ears are certainly not painted on.

Says he: “One would be hard put to better this personnel in Europe. If I were to form a band, these are the guys I would pick.” There can’t be a last word on the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band. But the Scott declaration will do for the time being. Tony Brown.

Source: www.jazzprofessional.com/ report/ClarkeBoland.htm

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TERENCE BLANCHARD

Terence Blanchard is an internationally renowned jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and Golden Globe-nominated film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz. He was an integral figure in the 1980s jazz resurgence having recorded several award-winning albums and having performed with the jazz elite. He is known as a straight-ahead artist in the hard bop tradition but has recently utilized an African-fusion style of playing that makes him unique from other trumpeters on the performance circuit. However, it is as a film composer that Blanchard reaches his widest audience. His trumpet can be heard on nearly fifty film scores; more than forty bear his unmistakable compositional style. Since 2000, Blanchard has served as Artistic Director at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. He lives in the Garden District of New Orleans with his wife and four children.

Biography

Terence Oliver Blanchard was born March 13, 1962, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the only child to parents Wilhelmina and Joseph Oliver. Terence began playing piano at the age of five and then the trumpet at age eight upon hearing Alvin Alcorn play. Blanchard played trumpet recreationally alongside childhood friend Wynton Marsalis in summer music camps but showed no real proficiency on the instrument. Then, while in high school, he began studying at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) under Roger Dickerson and Ellis Marsalis, Jr.. From 1980 to 1982, Blanchard studied under jazz saxophonist Paul Jeffrey and trumpeter Bill Fielder at Rutgers University, while touring with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. In 1982, Wynton Marsalis recommended Blanchard to replace him in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and until 1986, Blanchard was the band's trumpeter and musical director. With Blakey and as co-leader of a quintet with saxophonist Donald Harrison and pianist Mulgrew Miller, Blanchard rose to prominence as a key figure in the 1980s Jazz Resurgence. The Harrison/Blanchard group recorded five albums from 1984-1988 until Blanchard left to pursue a solo career in 1990.

In the 1990s, after a laborious but successful embouchure change, Blanchard was as busy as ever. He recorded his self-titled debut for Columbia Records which reached third on the Billboard Jazz Charts. After performing on soundtracks for Spike Lee movies, including Do the Right Thing and Mo' Better Blues, Lee wanted Blanchard to compose the scores for his films beginning with "Jungle Fever" (1991). Blanchard has written the score for every Spike Lee film since including, Malcolm X, Clockers, Summer of Sam, 25th Hour, Inside Man. In 2006, he composed the score for Spike Lee's 4-hour Hurricane Katrina documentary for HBO entitled When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Blanchard also appeared in front of the camera with his mother to share their emotional journey back to find her home completely destroyed.

Blanchard has also composed for other directors, including Leon Icasho, Ron Shelton and Kasi Lemmons. With over forty scores to his credit, Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for movies. Entertainment Weekly proclaimed Blanchard "central to a general resurgence of jazz composition for film." Yet in a 1994 interview for Down Beat, Blanchard was quoted as saying, "Writing for film is fun, but nothing can beat being a jazz musician, playing a club, playing a concert,"

All the while, Blanchard has remained true to his jazz roots as a trumpeter and bandleader on the performance circuit. He has recorded several award-winning albums for Columbia, Sony Classical and Blue Note Records, including In My Solitude: The Billie Holiday Songbook (1994), Romantic Defiance (1995), The Heart Speaks (1996), Wandering Moon (2000), Let's Get Lost (2001) and Flow (2005), which was produced by pianist Herbie Hancock and received two Grammy Award nominations.

Terence Blanchard's 2001 CD Let's Get Lost was his most commercially successful album to date. It features new arrangements of classic songs written by Jimmy McHugh and performed by his own quintet along with the leading ladies of jazz vocals: Diana Krall, Jane Monheit, Dianne Reeves, and Cassandra Wilson.

In 2005, Blanchard was part of the ensemble that won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for his participation on McCoy Tyner’s Illuminations, an award he shared with Tyner, Gary Bartz, Christian McBride and Lewis Nash.

Print Biography

In December 2002, Scarecrow Press published Contemporary Cat: Terence Blanchard with Special Guests, an authorized biography of Blanchard written by Anthony Magro.
The book is the 42nd title in the publisher's well-regarded "Series In Jazz" headed by editors Dan Morgenstern and Edward Berger.

"Written in an intimate, conversational style, Contemporary Cat: Terence Blanchard with Special Guests begins in the birthplace of jazz, Blanchard's hometown, New Orleans. His family and famous musician teachers speak of a disciplined youngster who matured alongside the Marsalis brothers and saxophonist Donald Harrison to become a leader in the important 1980s jazz resurgence."

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz

In the fall of 2000, Terence Blanchard was named artistic director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. Herbie Hancock serves as chairman; Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry and Jimmy Heath sit on the board of trustees. The conservatory offers an intensive, tuition-free, two-year master's program to a limited number of students (only up to eight per every two years).

In his role as artistic director, Blanchard works with the students in the areas of artistic development, arranging, composition, and career counseling. He also participates in master classes and community outreach activities associated with the program. "Out of my desire to give something back to the jazz community, I wanted to get involved. In fact, I've always said that if I wasn't a musician, that I would like to be a teacher. So I was glad to get involved and to be a part of this unique program that fosters such an open and accessible environment."

In April 2007, the Institute announced its "Commitment to New Orleans" initiative which includes the relocation of the program to the campus of Loyola University New Orleans from Los Angeles. Blanchard had passionately lobbied the Institute to relocate saying, "After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was shaken and its musical roots were threatened. I grew up in this city and learned about jazz here at Loyola with other young jazz musicians like Wynton and Branford Marsalis and I know that the Institute will have a great impact on jazz and in our communities. We are going to work hard to help jazz and New Orleans flourish once again."

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Terence Blanchard Biography

The crucible of catastrophe impels creative expression. Since the turn of the century, this has taken shape in manifold ways, from artistic responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks to the war in Iraq to the pummeling of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It is this latter calamity that informs Crescent City native son Terence Blanchard’s impassioned song cycle, A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina), a 13-track emotional tour de force of anger, rage, compassion, melancholy and beauty. A Tale of God’s Will, which features Blanchard’s quintet—pianist Aaron Parks, saxophonist Brice Winston, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Kendrick Scott—as well as a 40-member string orchestra, is his third album for Blue Note Records. (Since signing with the label in 2003, Blanchard has released two other critically acclaimed albums, Bounce and Flow, the latter of which was nominated for two Grammys in 2006.)
“This is what we are called to do as artists,” says the trumpeter, bandleader, arranger and film-scorecomposer. “We document our social surroundings and give our impressions of events. The problem with Katrina is that the devastation is so vast that there’s only been a trickle of art so far. We’re all still digesting what went on and what continues to happen. It’s like an unending story. For me, like so many others, it’s taken me a moment to get my mind around all of this. I knew I needed to express this musically to keep the story alive, but so many important things—the safety of family members, figuringout how to rebuild my mother’s house—never allowed me the time to breathe for a minute.”

An important jumpstart for A Tale of God’s Will was director Spike Lee’s decision to document the aftermath of Katrina on film, in what turned out to be the four hour HBO documentary,When The Levees Broke, which aired last year. Lee, who has enlisted Blanchard on numerous occasions to score his films, such as Mo’BetterBlues, Malcolm X, The 25th Hourand Inside Man, tapped him once again for his documentary. “That started me to make some musical statements for this moment in time,” Blanchard says. “It’s part of the grieving process. Once I wrote some of the music for Spike’s film,IknewI could take it and expand upon it. Meanwhile, guys in my band were writing music that reflectedonwhat happened in the aftermath of Katrina. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to bring the band all together.”
Four of the Levees tracks—“Levees,” “Wading Through,” “The Water” and “Funeral Dirge”—formed a nucleus of material for A Tale of God’s Will. “Melodically and structurally, the tunes are the same, but the arrangements are different,” says Blanchard, who cites as an example the dramatic piece “Levees” with its lyrical trumpeted woe. In that case, there’s a long orchestral opening and interlude. “Spike had limited resources in filming the documentary,which means there was no moneyfororchestration,” says Blanchard. He adds, “The whole idea for this piece was to show the calm before the storm that you can hear in the string arrangement and the interlude is when the storm comes and the levees break. The second section is when people are on their roofs waiting for help, so the trumpet cries.”
Recording this album challenged Blanchard, who says that he had to “contain myself, but I was so frustrated and in rage. I wanted the trumpet to scream on every track, but I feel that God is using me to speak for all the souls in New Orleans. We’re all still tired, but it’s almost as if things have gone back to normal for people outside while our lives here don’t matter.”
Another tune from Levees, “Water,” features a full orchestral plunge with Blanchard’s wailing trumpet emerging. Blanchard explains that with all the flood waters still high, it looked as if the city was castaway in an ocean. “The water was omnipresent,” says Blanchard who was out of the city when disaster struck yet was watching CNN nonstop. “I was in disbelief seeing how 80 percent of the city was under water and that my old neighborhood had 12 feet of water. I remember when I was a kid and Hurricane Betsy hit New Orleans and there were a few feet of water. That scared me then and actually made me fear water.”

The other Lee-related tracks are the slowly loping melodic gem, “Wading Through” (also used in Lee’s filmInsideMan) and the march-beat “Funeral Dirge, ”atune Blanchard says “was one of the hardest pieces for me to write. To see your city on TV with dead bodies in neighborhoods you knew was deep. It was as if it were Baghdad. This was my attempt to pay homage to the people who lost their lives, to give people a proper burial. It was intense working on these pieces that sometimes I had to take a breath, go outside and play with the kids, and then come back at it.”
Other Blanchard tunes on A Tale of God’s Will include “Dear Mom,” his personal tribute to his mother who lost her home (her emotional first return to see there mains was documented by Lee in Levees) and a series of “ghost” tunes interspersed throughout the album: the African beat-drenched “Ghost of Congo Square,” the trumpet-bass dance “Ghost of Betsy” (about the aforementioned Hurricane Betsy) and the plaintive tune sketched by saxophone and drums, “Ghost of 1927” (another floodthat ravaged New Orleans). The ghost pieces were unplanned at the onset of the recording sessions, which took place in Los Angeles and Seattle.
“They just came to me throughout the recording,” Blanchard says. “The ghosts represent the warnings of the past. In the firstone,weadded in hand claps and percussion as wellasthechant,‘Thisisthetale of God’s will.’ That’s what this story is about: God’s will be done. We can’t understand why things happened, but we can trust that we can learn something from it.” 
The band member contributions prove to be just as potent and reflective as Blanchard’s music. Park’s “Ashé,” which translated from the Yoruban language means “and so it shall be.” He explains that the beautiful melody “acts as a benediction: an acceptance of—and release from—past troubles and an ushering in of something new, determined and optimistic.” Blanchard notes, “The emotion and melody set the tone for the album in capturing the exhaustion a lot of people felt after the storm and flood.”
Winston’s melancholic “In Time of Need,” is buoyed by Blanchard and Scott’s wordless vocals. “This tune marks a shift in Brice’s artistic career,” Blanchard says. “He wanted it to feature my trumpet, so I said, sure, but slowly I took myself out of the piece so that it became his feature.” Winston, who spent his entire adult life in New Orleans, says he was compelled to write the tune “to express, through music, my sadness and frustration for my own family’s tumultuous existence as well as for the countless people affected as a result of human ineptitude.”
Scott’s epic piece, “Mantra,” begins with a bass feature with tablas in the mix that opens into a pensive and then dramatic soundscape. Scott says, “Our obligation is to help those who survived rebuild their lives and to rebuild their communities safer than they were before. The word mantra…is characterized as a statement that is repeated frequently. My greatest hope is that this recording and this song will serve as a mantra for healing and renewal, for reflection and progression, and as an offering to touch peoples’ lives for the better.”
Hodge says that his ultimately hopeful tune, “Over There,” is about the “constant search in life” for something better. He notes, “Our present circumstances can make it difficult for us at times to see better for ourselves. Sometimes that ‘Over There’ may be just a song that can help us through.” Blanchard explains that the song was captured on tape when the band was sound checking the mikes. After subsequent takes, all agreed that the firstrunthroughwasthekeeper.
Blanchard adds that the entire project, like Hodge’s song, is about gratitude. “Requiem tells the story,” he says, “that needs to heard so that people will continue to talk about what happened after Katrina.”

Source: terenceblanchard.com

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Discography

A complete discography of Blanchard's jazz recordings as a bandleader. Year Title Genre Label
1984 New York Second Line (as Harrison/Blanchard) Jazz Concord 
1986 Discernment (as Harrison/Blanchard) Jazz Concord 
1986 Nascence (as Harrison/Blanchard) Jazz Columbia 
1987 Crystal Stair (as Harrison/Blanchard) Jazz Columbia 
1988 Black Pearl (as Harrison/Blanchard) Jazz Columbia 
1991 Terence Blanchard Jazz Columbia 
1992 Simply Stated Jazz Columbia 
1993 The Malcolm X Jazz Suite Jazz Columbia 
1994 In My Solitude: The Billie Holiday Songbook Jazz Columbia 
1995 Romantic Defiance - dedicated to the memory of John Candy Jazz Columbia 
1996 The Heart Speaks Latin Jazz Columbia 
1999 Jazz In Film Jazz Sony Classical 
2000 Wandering Moon Jazz Sony Classical 
2001 Let's Get Lost Jazz Sony Classical 
2003 Bounce Jazz Blue Note 
2005 Flow Jazz Blue Note 
2007 A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina) Jazz Blue Note

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WES MONTGOMERY

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery, 6 March 1923 - 15 June 1968 was an American jazz guitarist. He is generally considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including Pat Martino, George Benson, and Pat Metheny.

Biography

Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He came from a musical family; his brothers, Monk (string bass and electric bass) and Buddy (vibraphone and piano), were jazz performers. The brothers released a number of albums together as the Montgomery Brothers. Although he was not skilled at reading music, he could learn complex melodies and riffs by ear. Montgomery started learning guitar at the age of 19, listening to and learning recordings of his idol, the guitarist Charlie Christian. He was known for his ability to play Christian solos note for note and was hired by Lionel Hampton for this ability.

Many fellow Jazz guitarists consider Montgomery the greatest influence among modern jazz guitarists. Pat Metheny has praised him greatly, saying "I learned to play listening to Wes Montgomery's Smokin' At The Half Note." In addition, Metheny stated to the New York Times in 2005 that the solo on "if You Could See Me Now," from this album is his favorite of all time. Joe Pass indicated that, "To me, there have been only three real innovators on the guitar--Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, and Django Reinhardt," as cited in James Sallis's The Guitar Players and in his Hot Licks instructional video. In addition, George Benson attests, "Wes had a corn on his thumb, which gave his sound that point. He would get one sound for the soft parts, and then that point by using the corn. That's why no one will ever match Wes. And his thumb was double-jointed. He could bend it all the way back to touch his wrist, which he would do to shock people." Kenny Burrell states, "It was an honor that he called me as his second guitarist for a session." In addition, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix, and Pat Martino have pointed to him numerous times as a great influence. Indeed, one need not look far to gain a sense of the reverence for Wes Montgomery in the world of Jazz and pop guitar.

Following the early work of swing/pre-bop guitarist Charlie Christian and gypsy-jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, Wes joined Tal Farlow, Johnny Smith, Jimmy Raney, and Barney Kessell to put guitar on the map as a bebop / post-bop instrument. While these men generally curtailed their own output in the 1960s, Montgomery recorded prolifically during this period, lending guitar to the same tunes contemporaries like John Coltrane and Miles Davis were recording. While many Jazz players are regarded as virtuosos, Montgomery had a very wide influence on other virtuosos who followed him, and in the respect he earned from his contemporaries. To many, Montgomery's playing defines jazz guitar and the sound that learners try to emulate.

Dave Miele and Dan Bielowsky claim, "Wes Montgomery was certainly one of the most influential and most musical guitarists to ever pick up the instrument....He took the use of octaves and chord melodies to a greater level than any other guitarist, before or since....Montgomery is undoubtedly one of the most important voices in Jazz guitar that has ever lived-or most likely ever will live. A discussion of Jazz guitar is simply not thorough if it does not touch upon Wes Montgomery." (Jazz Improv Magazine, vol 7 # 4 p. 26).

"Listening to [Wes Montgomery's] solos is like teetering at the edge of a brink," composer-conductor Gunther Schuller asserted, as quoted by Jazz & Pop critic Will Smith. "His playing at its peak becomes unbearably exciting, to the point where one feels unable to muster sufficient physical endurance to outlast it." Wes received many awards and accolades: Nominated for two Grammy Awards for Bumpin', 1965; received Grammy Award for Goin' Out of My Head as Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by Large Group or Soloist with Large Group, 1966; nominated for Grammy Awards for "Eleanor Rigby" and Down Here on the Ground, 1968; nominated for Grammy Award for Willow, Weep for Me, 1969. Wes' second album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, earned him Down Beat magazine's "New Star" award in 1960. In addition, he won the Down Beat Critic's Poll award for best Jazz guitarist in 1960, '61, '62,'63, '66, and 1967. (NPR.org, September 26, 2007).

Montgomery toured with Lionel Hampton early in his career, however the combined stress of touring and being away from family brought him back home to Indianapolis. To support his family of eight, Montgomery worked in a factory from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, then performed in local clubs from 9:00 pm to 2:00 am. Cannonball Adderley heard Montgomery in an Indianapolis club and was floored. The next morning, he called record producer Orrin Keepnews, who signed Montgomery to a recording contract with Riverside Records. Adderly later recorded with Montgomery on his Pollwinners album. Montgomery recorded with his brothers and various other group members, including the Wynton Kelly Trio which previously backed up Miles Davis.

John Coltrane asked Montgomery to join his band after a jam session, but Montgomery continued to lead his own band. Boss Guitar seems to refer to his status as a guitar-playing bandleader. He also made contributions to recordings by Jimmy Smith. Jazz purists relish Montgomery's recordings up through 1965, and sometimes complain that he abandoned hard-bop for pop jazz towards the end of his career, although it is arguable that he gained a wider audience for his earlier work with his soft jazz from 1965-1968. During this late period he would occasionally turn out original material alongside jazzy orchestral arrangements of pop songs. In sum, this late period earned him considerable wealth and created a platform for a new audience to hear his earlier recordings.

Wes Montgomery died of a heart attack on June 15, 1968 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

Technique

According to Jazz guitar educator Wolf Marshall, Montgomery often approached solos in a three-tiered manner: He would begin a repeating progression with single note lines, derived from scales or modes; after a fitting number of sequences, he would play octaves for a few more sequences, finally culminating with block chords.

The use of octaves (playing the same note on two strings one octave apart) for which he is widely known, became known as "the Naptown Sound". Montgomery was also an excellent "single-line" or "single-note" player, and was very influential in the use of block chords in his solos. His playing on the jazz standard Lover Man is an example of his single-note, octave- and block-chord soloing. ("Lover Man" appears on the Fantasy album The Montgomery Brothers.)

Instead of using a guitar pick, Montgomery plucked the strings with the fleshy part of his thumb, using downstrokes for single notes and a combination of upstrokes and downstrokes for chords and octaves. Montgomery developed this technique not for technical reasons but for his wife. He worked long hours as a machinist before his career began and practiced late at night while his wife was sleeping. He played with his thumb so that his playing would be softer and not wake her. This technique enabled him to get a mellow, expressive tone from his guitar. George Benson, in the liner notes of the Ultimate Wes Montgomery album, wrote, "Wes had a corn on his thumb, which gave his sound that point. He would get one sound for the soft parts, and then that point by using the corn. That's why no one will ever match Wes. And his thumb was double-jointed. He could bend it all the way back to touch his wrist, which he would do to shock people."

He generally played a Gibson L-5CES guitar. In his later years he played one of two guitars that Gibson custom made for him. In his early years, Montgomery had a tube amp, often a Fender. In his later years, he played a solid state Standel amp with a 15 inch speaker.

Recording career

Montgomery toured with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's orchestra from July 1948 to January 1950, and can be heard on recordings from this period. Montgomery then returned to Indianapolis and did not record again until December 1957 (save for one session in 1955), when he took part in a session that included his brothers Monk and Buddy, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who made his recording debut with Montgomery. Most of the recordings made by Montgomery and his brothers from 1957-1959 were released on the Pacific Jazz label.

From 1959 Montgomery was signed to the Riverside Records label, and remained there until late 1963, just before the company went bankrupt. The recordings made during this period are widely considered by fans and jazz historians to be Montgomery's best and most influential. Two sessions in January 1960 yielded The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, which was recorded as a quartet with pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath. The album featured two of Montgomery's most well-known compositions, "Four on Six" and "West Coast Blues."

Almost all of Montgomery's output on Riverside featured the guitarist in a small group setting, usually a trio (and always with his organist from his Indianapolis days, Melvin Rhyne), a quartet, or a quintet, playing a mixture of hard-swinging uptempo jazz numbers and quiet ballads. The lone exception, Fusion, telegraphed his post-Riverside career: it was his first recording with a string ensemble. One of the more memorable sets involved a co-leadership collaboration with vibraphone virtuoso and Modern Jazz Quartet mainstay Milt Jackson, whom producer Orrin Keepnews has said insisted on a collaboration with Montgomery as a condition for signing a solo recording deal with Riverside.

In 1964 Montgomery moved to Verve Records for two years. His stay at Verve yielded a number of albums where he was featured with an orchestra---brass-dominated (Movin' Wes), string-oriented (Bumpin', Tequila), or a mix of both (Goin' Out of My Head, California Dreamin').

But he never abandoned jazz entirely in the Verve years, whether with a few selections on most of the Verve albums, or by such sets as 1965s Smokin' at the Half Note (showcasing two memorable appearances at the famous New York City club with the Wynton Kelly Trio) or a pair of albums he made with jazz organ titan Jimmy Smith, The Dynamic Duo and The Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes). He continued to play outstanding live jazz guitar, as evidenced by surviving audio and video recordings from his 1965 tour of Europe.

As a considered founder of the Smooth Jazz school the album "Bumpin'" (1965) represents a model from which many modern recording are derived: as the liner notes to the CD remaster issue note, after being unable to produce the desired results by the guitarist and orchestra playing together, arranger Don Sebesky suggested Montgomery record the chosen music with his chosen small group, after which Sebesky would write the orchestral charts based on what Montgomery's group had produced. Longer clips from all of the tracks on "Bumpin'" and other Wes Montgomery albums are found on Verve Records website.

By the time Montgomery released his first album for A&M Records, he had seemingly abandoned jazz entirely for the more lucrative pop market, though as in his Verve period he played his customary jazz in small group settings in live appearances. The three albums released during his A&M period (1967-68) feature orchestral renditions of famous pop songs ("Scarborough Fair," "I Say a Little Prayer for You," "Eleanor Rigby," etc.) with Montgomery reciting the melody with his guitar. These records were the most commercially successful of his career, but featured the least jazz improvisation.[citation needed]

He didn't have very long to live to enjoy his commercial success, however; in 1968, he woke one morning, remarked to his wife that he "Didn't feel very well," and minutes later collapsed, dying of a heart attack within minutes. Montgomery's home town of Indianapolis has named a park in his honor. He is the grandfather of actor Anthony Montgomery.

Wes and Buddy, along with Richard Crabtree and Benny Barth, formed "The Mastersounds", and recorded "Jazz Showcase Introducing The Mastersounds" and a jazz version of "The King and I", both released by World Pacific Records. They first played together at Seattle, particularly working up the set for "The King and I", at a club called Dave's Fifth Avenue. The composers were so impressed by the jazz version of "The King & I" that they pre-released the score of "Flower Drum Song" to the quartet to allow simultaneous release with the sound track album.

Discography Wes Montgomery "Tear It Down" (1965)

Sample from Wes Montgomery's "Tear It Down," from the album Bumpin'

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Fingerpickin' (1958)
Far Wes (1958)
The Wes Montgomery Trio (1959)
The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960)
Cannonball Adderley and the Poll-Winners (1960)
Movin' Along (1960)
The Montgomery Brothers (1960)
The Montgomery Brothers in Canada (1961)
So Much Guitar! (1961)
Groove Yard (1961)
Bags Meets Wes! (with Milt Jackson) (1961)
Full House (1962)
Fusion!: Wes Montgomery with Strings (strings arranged by Jimmy Jones) (1963)
Boss Guitar (1963)
Guitar On The Go (1963)
The Alternative Wes Montgomery (alternate takes for previously issued albums) (1963)
Portrait of Wes (1963)
Movin' Wes (1964)
Bumpin' (arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky) (1965)
Smokin' at the Half Note (1965)
Goin' Out of My Head (arranged and conducted by Oliver Nelson) (1965)
Tequila (arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman) (1966)
California Dreaming (arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky) (1966)
Jimmy & Wes: The Dynamic Duo (with Jimmy Smith) (1966)
Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes (with Jimmy Smith) (1966)
A Day in the Life (arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky) (1967)
Down Here on the Ground (arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky) (1968)
Road Song (arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky) (1968)
Willow Weep for Me (unused takes from the Smokin' at the Half Note session; overdubbed woodwinds and brass arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman) (1968)
vol.2 the best of Wes Montgomery (posthumous compilation of Verve recordings) (1968?)

References

a b c d e f Allmusic Biography
Wes Montgomery Biography

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