My album pick for this month is Wes Montgomery’s Down Here on the Ground, A&M records 1968 vinyl (mono). This record is the CTI division of A&M records. Many jazz purists bemoan Creed Taylor’s (CTI head), adding of strings and extra instrumentation to “sweeten” the sound, and I pretty much agree. I think he did that to dumb down the music to make it more saleable to the easy listening crowd. I would of course prefer to listen to Wes in a standard trio format. But the CTI records are nice testaments to the sound of the era and are kinda timeless classics.
There’s good material in this album, a couple of Lalo Schifrin movie themes, “Down here on the Ground” from Cool Hand Luke, and “The Fox”. The popular “Georgia on my mind” and “I say a little prayer for you”, and many others. Wes just flows through all of it with both aggressive domination, and tenderness. And despite the “sweetening”, the guitar is first and foremost.
Let me digress and talk about mono. I was never into mono. Why mono when you can have stereo spread? Well that changed when a good friend gave me a CD of Pink Floyd’s “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”. It had mono and stereo mixes. I did a direct comparison and to my surprise preferred the mono. The stereo sounded fake and distracting, whereas the mono was cohesive, full, and somehow more ambient. I’ve been a believer ever since.
Hearing this album in mono was a revelation as well. I’ve never heard Wes’ guitar so thick and full, right in the middle. And the entire sound, drums, strings, and all, is in an invisible soundstage kinda between and extending behind the speakers. It’s like you’re not listening to speakers, because nothing appears to be directly coming from them, whereas a stereo mix would have some extreme panning, with sound coming directly out of each side.
So, most of us love Wes. But you can give Creed’s vision of Wes a chance, at least on this record. You won’t be disappointed. Of course, this particular record also benefits from being an early pressing promo copy from the KFOG collection. But at least seek out the mono. It’s awesome.