Rare Wes Montgomery material is hard to come by. Not counting Willow Weep for Me, the posthumous LP Verve issued in 1968 not long after the guitarist's passing, there was Resonance's 2012 set Echoes of Indiana Avenue, which contained largely live performances from 1957 and 1958. In the Beginning, released three years after Echoes, draws from a similar well of unreleased recordings, offering a heavy dose of live material along with five sides produced by Quincy Jones at Columbia Studios in 1955, plus three tracks a session at Spire Records in Fresno, California in 1949.
Sequenced in rough reverse chronological order – two live performances from November 1958 open the second disc, but the first is entirely devoted to recordings made at the Turf Club in Indianapolis in 1956, when Wes was supported by his brother Buddy on piano, Monk Montgomery on bass, Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson on tenor sax, and drummer Sonny Johnson – the end result has Montgomery turning into a slightly straighter player as the collection rolls on, but that by no means means he sounds stiff. The 1949 cuts that wrap this up veer closer to big band than to bop, and there's a slight touch of politeness to the Jones-produced cuts. That said, it's possible to hear traces of Montgomery's fluidity here, but it's the live cuts from 1956 and 1958 that truly command attention. Here, there's a palpable hunger and playfulness to the performances that give the hard bop a kinetic kick, which means this isn't merely a worthy release from a historic standpoint, it's flat-out fun to boot.
Guitar - Wes Montgomery
Saxophone - Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson
Saxophone - Gene Morris
Piano - Jack Coker
Piano - Richie Crabtree
Piano - Douglas Duke
Piano, Vibes Buddy Montgomery
Piano - Mel Rhyne
Bass - John Dale
Bass - Roy Johnson
Bass - Monk Montgomery
Bass - Flip Stewart
Drums - Sonny Johnson
Drums - Paul Parker
Drums - Earl Walker
Vocals - Debbie Andrews
Vocals - Sonny Parker
CD1
01 - After You've Gone
02 - Fascinating Rhythm
03 - Brazil
04 - What Is There To Say
05 - Four
06 - Wes' Tune
07 - My Heart Stood Still
08 - How High The Moon
09 - Django
10 - Down to Big Mary's
11 - I Should Care
12 - Caravan
13 - Six Bridges To Cross
14 - Ralph's New Blues
CD2
01 - Soft Winds
02 - Robin's Nest
03 - A Night In Tunisia
04 - Love For Sale
05 - Leila
06 - Blues
07 - Undecided
08 - Far Wes
09 - All The Things You Are
10 - King Trotter
11 - Carlena's Blues
12 - Smooth Evening
