Wes Montgomery’s Smoking at the Half Note deserves to be dusted off.

By Colin O’Neil

In June of 1965, Wes Montgomery and the backing band of Miles Davis recorded a show at New York City’s jazz club, The Half Note, and subsequently released the live album, Smokin’ at the Half Note. Listening to this album, I am drawn back to a different time, when jazz mattered. Today, it’s tough to imagine jazz as relevant. Say “jazz” and think Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane, men who may have once been great, but now are dead. Well, Wes Montgomery is dead too, but like many of his contemporaries, he still makes waves. Smokin’ at the Half Note is not just a lazy old jazz album; it’s music in motion, it’s fast and chaotic, it’s the pushing of what we know as musical boundaries, and it’s worth a listen.

Smokin’ at the Half Note showcases guitarist Wes Montgomery, pianist Wynton Kelly, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Jimmy Cobb. It has long numbers, furious-fast solos and complex chord changes, all structured around musical arrangements. But, in typical jazz fashion, they stray far and wide from these arrangements, only to return to them with a responsive roar from the audience. “Four on Six” begins easy enough, only to take off in all directions with intertwining piano and guitar riffs, so quick that by the time you revel in a particular slide, bend, or roll, the music itself is long past, on to bigger and better things. Only after nine minutes of managed chaos does it all come back together. “Impressions” is another fast one. The drummer motors things along while Montgomery tries to keep up. His notes change fast but his riffs slide with unbelievable ease into each other. The piano drifts in and out, as if it is somehow lost in the whole thing, only to find its footing and return.

It seems strange to be writing a review of a jazz album released in the 60s. This album is from an age and a genre that has largely moved on, but is representative of a place and time. If you play guitar with any great ambition, Wes Montgomery is a name you will sooner or later come to know. But even if you don’t, I urge you to lose your preconceived notions about jazz and give it a shot. It signifies a part of music that is largely absent today, as we struggle to exist within time frames, radio-friendly content, and repetitive musical genres. Smokin’ at the Half Note exists outside the musical norm.