Creed Taylor
matched two of his most famous artists,
Wes Montgomery
and
Jimmy Smith
, on this session (
Montgomery
's last for
Verve
), and the results are incendiary -- a near-ideal meeting of yin and yang.
Smith
comes at your throat with his big attacks and
blues
runs while
responds with rounder, smoother octaves and single notes that still convey much heat. They are an amazing pair, complementing each other, driving each other, using their
bop
taproots to fuse together a sound. The romping, aggressive
big band
charts --
Oliver Nelson
at his best -- on
"Down by the Riverside"
"Night Train,"
and the pungently haunting chart for
Gary McFarland
's
"13" (Death March)"
still leave plenty of room for the soloists to stretch out.
"James and Wes"
"Baby, It's Cold Outside"
include drummer
Grady Tate
and conguero
Ray Barretto
, with
's own feet working the organ pedals. The
Master Edition
reissue also includes an alternate take of
"O.G.D."
with
Tate
Barretto
, a track previously surfacing on a long-gone
Encyclopedia of Jazz
anthology LP from the '60s -- a neat bonus that makes this the preferred version. ~ Richard S. Ginell