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Fingerpickin'

Fingerpickin'
Fingerpickin Wes Montgomery.jpg
Studio album by Wes Montgomery
Released 1958
Recorded December 30, 1957 in Indianapolis, Indiana and April 1958 in Los Angeles
Genre Jazz
Length 56:09 (Reissue)
Label Pacific Jazz
Producer Dick Bock
Wes Montgomery chronology
Fingerpickin'
(1958)
Far Wes
(1959)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 3/5 stars

Fingerpickin' is the debut album by American jazz guitarist John "Wes" Montgomery, released in 1958 and comprising tracks from sessions in 1957 and 1958. Six of the ten tracks were originally released as The Montgomery Brothers and Five Others in 1957.

The majority of the album was recorded during a session in Indianapolis on December 30, 1957. From that session six songs were released as an album titled The Montgomery Brothers and Five Others. Three other tracks ("Stranger in Paradise", "Baubles, Bangles and Beads", and "Not Since Nineveh)" were recorded during a session in Los Angeles on April 22, 1958, and originally appeared on the album titled Kismet by The Mastersounds.

Montgomery played in the session with a group called The Mastersounds which included two brothers of his, Buddy and Monk Montgomery. Dick Bock, a producer for Pacific Jazz Records, was familiar with Montgomery and invited him to record. "Fingerpickin'" was a song contributed by Montgomery and is his only original composition on the album. The recordings were not particularly successful despite the talents of Montgomery and a young Freddie Hubbard, however, they enhanced his reputation especially amongst jazz guitarists. They are the first recordings of a musician who would later be hailed as one of only three real innovators in jazz guitar, as quoted by Joe Pass.

In his Allmusic review, music critic Scott Yanow wrote "This CD reissues the complete album (which usually has appeared in piecemeal fashion) and finds Wes already quite recognizable. The pretty standard hard bop music... Although this reissue on a whole is not essential, the music is generally enjoyable and the CD will fill some gaps in one's Wes Montgomery collection."

World Pacific PJ-1240 (original release)


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