Wes Montgomery - California Dreaming (1973 Japanese Verve Stereo Vinyl LP)

Wes Montgomery - California Dreaming | Vinyl LP - 1973 Japanese Verve Records Stereo Reissue (MV 2051, Polydor K.K.)

• Topped the Billboard Jazz chart on release, with Montgomery’s signature octave runs turning pop covers and Latin-tinged originals into something distinctly his own, backed by a first-call New York session crew.
• Recorded over three days at Van Gelder Studio in September 1966, with Creed Taylor producing, Don Sebesky arranging, and Rudy Van Gelder behind the desk: the same production axis that defined Verve’s crossover sound.
• 1973 Japanese pressing in gatefold sleeve with Japanese insert, part of the Modern Jazz Verve Best series, manufactured by Polydor K.K.

Montgomery’s Verve years are the ones that divided opinion and sold records. California Dreaming, his final album for the label before moving to A&M, leans hard into pop repertoire: the Mamas & the Papas’ title track, Bobby Hebb’s “Sunny”, a breezy “South of the Border.” Don Sebesky’s orchestral charts are lush and commercial, brass and woodwinds cushioning every phrase. But the record works because Montgomery never coasts inside them. His thumb technique gives even the lightest material a physical warmth that studio polish can’t replicate. And when the arrangements pull back, as on the six-minute blues “Sun Down” or the Latin grooves of “Green Peppers” and “Mr. Walker”, Montgomery stretches out with a rhythm section that needs no introduction: Herbie Hancock on piano, Richard Davis on bass, Grady Tate and Ray Barretto on percussion.

This is one of those records that reads differently now than it did on release. Critics at the time saw a jazz musician going commercial. Fifty years on, it sounds like a guitarist who could make any context his own, playing with studio musicians who were equally at home on a Blue Note date or a Broadway pit call. The result hit No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz chart and crossed over to No. 4 on the R&B chart. Montgomery died less than two years later, aged forty-five. This copy is the 1973 Japanese Verve stereo reissue, pressed by Polydor K.K. as part of the Modern Jazz Verve Best series, with gatefold sleeve and Japanese-language insert.