WES MONTGOMERY — A Day in the Life (review)

WES MONTGOMERY — A Day in the Life album cover Album · 1967 · Pop/Art Song/Folk Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
js
Easily one of the top jazz guitarists of all time, Wes Montgomery spent much of his career recording commercial albums of varying quality. Unfortunately, “A Day in the Life” is not one of his best efforts, but it does have its moments. The first side starts off great with Wes playing the title track melody by the Beatles to a slow smokey groove. This sort of laid back bluesy cool is classic Montgomery territory and this album would have been great with more moments like this. Unfortunately, just as Wes is wrapping up his solo, arranger Don Sebesky decides to include the jaunty bouncy middle section of the classic Beatles’ tune ("grabbed my coat, grabbed my hat") and the whole track just loses its vibe right there. From there the album proceeds towards various pop ditties and lite bossa novas that are often buried under heavy handed string treatments. Pop-jazz can be just as valid and artistic as any other music, but not most of the tunes on this album. The cover of “When a Man Loves a Woman” is a good example of this album’s faults with its overbearing strings and simple reading of the tune, Montgomery is capable of so much more than this.

As mentioned earlier, there are some good tracks on here; “California Nights” is cool Latin tinged exotica, and the album closer, “The Joker”, has a great Afro-Cuban groove and some real jazz soloing from Wes. Add to those two, the good part of the opening cut, and you have a few worthwhile tracks for the collector of Montgomery’s best music.
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