full house

Wes Montgomery captured his electrifying live sound for the first time with this spontaneously swinging set and came up with one of his finest albums.  'Full House' came together when the Miles Davis sextet came to San Francisco and Montgomery made arrangements to record with his rhythm section of the Wynton Kelly trio.  Davis objected to the session until Kelly asked him to compensate the trio for the fees that had been offered.  The set was recorded on June 25, 1962 at Tsubo across the bay in Berkeley and produced by Orrin Keepnews with Montgomery on guitar; Johnny Griffin on tenor sax; and the Wynton Kelly trio featuring Kelly on piano; Paul Chambers on bass; and Jimmy Cobb on drums.  The interplay is magical with every member of the group able to take center stage; and, after the experience, the trio would leave Davis to work with Montgomery.   

Griffin looks back:   “I use a lot more space in my playing than when I was 25 or 30 years old. Before, I felt like I was in a rush to play everything possible— I got angry when I had to take a breath. I wanted to keep goin’ all the time. No space—fill it up! I was always motivated to play hard. I got so excited when I played, and I still do. I want to eat up the music, just like a child eating candy. The difference is that today I can back off and control myself.”

Montgomery considers the origin of his technique:   "When I started I bought the whole works. I got a box of picks because I felt sure there would be the right one in there for me. I refused to play unamplified, so I'm sitting in my house playing, you know - happy, but when I used my brand new amplifier I guess I didn't think about the neighbours. Soon they started complaining pretty heavy. But I was enjoying myself because it wasn't noise to me, it was music. But after two months my wife came to the door and asked me would I kindly turn that 'thing' off. Well, 'thing'? It was a guitar and amplifier, you know? So I laid my pick down on the amplifier and just fiddled around with the thumb. I said is that better.? Oh yes, she says, that's better. So I said I'll play like this till I get ready to play out, and then I'll get me a pick. Well, that wasn't easy either because I found out that I had developed the thumb for playing so that when I got ready to work my first job I picked up a pick and I think I must have lost about fifteen of them! I just didn't realize that I had to develop my pick technique, too. So I said 'later' for the pick. I was just playing for my own amusement so it was great. See, I couldn't hear the difference in the sound as it is today, so I figured OK, I'll just use my thumb. Probably a thousand cats are using their thumbs - only they're not in Indianapolis! The more I learnt about it, I found out that less guys were using their thumbs and I began to get a little frightened!"











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'Full House' 
full album:



"Full House" (Wes Montgomery) – 9:14
"I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe) – 3:18
"Blue 'n' Boogie" (Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Paparelli) – 9:31
"Come Rain or Come Shine" (Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen) – 6:49
"S.O.S." (Montgomery) – 4:57
"Born To Be Blue" (Mel Tormé, Robert Wells) – 7:23