Prior to the release of this remarkable discovery of 17 unissued 1965 Half Note recordings by Wes Montgomery and the Wynton Kelly Trio, the live selections from Verve label’s Smokin’ At The Half Note, recorded in June 1965 were considered to offer a more valuable perspective of Montgomery’s playing than his previous live disc, Full House, from 1962, also with Kelly, Chambers and Cobb.

However, it is worth remembering that the original LP issue of Smokin’, released in December 1965, only contained two live Half Note tracks, ‘No Blues’ and ‘If You Could See Me Now,’ that comprised side one. The three tracks on side two were recorded at Van Gelder’s studio on 22 September, 1965, (two days before the first three tracks that open Maximum Swing).

A further four tracks from the Smokin’ session were released in December 1968 on Montgomery’s Willow Weep For Me, albeit with strings overdubbed. It was not until 2005 that a further six tracks were released by Verve on a ‘complete’ reissue of the Smokin’ sessions, including the four ‘strings added’ tracks that had them mercifully removed. So even though Smokin’ has long been regarded as the most storied Montgomery album, it was not until 40 years later that the full picture emerged.

And although Maximum Swing comes almost 20 years after that, it must now be considered the most valuable of all Montgomery releases. The reason is simple. These 17 tracks reveal Montgomery in peak form in his optimum performing environment, in front of a live audience with Wynton Kelly’s trio. What is of special interest is that the length of solos by both Montgomery and Kelly. They were playing live for the WABC-FM radio show Portraits in Jazz and not for a recording company, where constraints of time and tracks per side of an LP were a consideration. As a result, this album serves to enhance the guitarist’s not inconsiderable reputation in jazz, a real-life study of two jazz masters at work.

Because of the significance of this release I am therefore including information that is not in the liner notes or attendant publicity in the hope of contributing in a small way to a better understanding of the music at hand. In 2000, I wrote that the Montgomery/Kelly association had, through the summer and fall of 1965, been touring the major jazz clubs and appearing at the Newport Jazz Festival on 4 July.

This is an important consideration, because these sessions are not an ‘all-star group’ thrown together for a club or record date, but a set, working ensemble who had developed a high degree of group empathy, producing a cohesion and unity of purpose that contributes significantly to the ‘maximum swing’ of the collection’s title. Kelly, who had perfect pitch, was a greatly underrated talent, both as an elegant soloist and a nonpareil accompanist and plays a key role in drawing the best out of Montgomery.

The set list of the Verve Smokin’ sessions and the Maximum Swing sessions both include ‘Impressions’, ‘No Blues’, ‘Four on Six’, and ‘Oh, You Crazy Moon’. Further, Maximum Swing includes two versions of ‘No Blues’ and ‘Four On Six.’

This suggests Montgomery and Kelly enjoyed working out on these titles. What we hear in a Montgomery solo is the feel of spontaneity, guided by specific developmental stages in the solo’s structure, particularly evident at medium to faster tempi – beginning with single note playing, he progresses through octaves and punch chords, through to a climax using question and answer riffs, again with octave punches, evoking the shout choruses employed by big band arrangers.

Montgomery was brought up in the big band era, and as a youth the radio waves would have filled with big band broadcasts and these structural devices used by big band arrangers clearly made an impression on him. In this respect Oscar Peterson, growing up at the same time in Canada, followed a similar structural approach to his solos, climaxing with big band call and response chords and a shout chorus.

Montgomery’s playing was imbued with blues hues, and the Maximum Swing sessions include an unnamed blues, and ‘Four on Six’, a 16-bar ABAC composition, with each section four bars where the solos are taken on a modified blues sequence of 16 bars (the composition first appeared on The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery from 1960). His solos reveal him the consummate storyteller, creating solos of strong melodic interest, while rhythmically playing a fraction ahead of the beat, so creating the sensation of ‘maximum swing’.

In the autumn of 1961 it is not commonly known that Montgomery was a member of the John Coltrane group – he was asked to join permanently but declined – and a legacy of this brief period is Coltrane’s ‘Impressions’, famously based on the 32-bar AABA modal sequence of ‘So What’ that opens the Miles Davis album Kind of Blue.

It is here, perhaps, that Montgomery’s most compelling playing is heard.