Dangerous CD Full of Surprises

Dangerous CD Full of Surprises

The recently released CD from Milestone Records includes six tracks out of nine that were already unearthed and released by Keepnews in 1993 as part of the 12-CD set “Wes Montgomery The Complete Riverside Recordings” (Riverside 12RCD-4408-2). At that time, it was thought that there were no unreleased or alternate takes left, given that the CD title emphasized “complete.” However, Fantasy has surprised us.

This is an area even Keepnews couldn’t delve into. Fantasy, historically a “dangerous” company known for not including recording data on their releases, left little hope for uncovering unreleased takes due to poor management. However, considering that Keepnews established Milestone after Riverside and later acquired the Fantasy rights, it wasn’t entirely out of reach for him during the 12-CD set release. Regardless, we now have a previously unreleased alternate take of “Green Dolphin Street” and two unreleased takes of “Stella by Starlight” from “The Montgomery Brothers In Canada” (Fantasy 3323).

Moreover, the recording data confirms the expected April date and even specifies the 16th. The annotation mentions “audience removed,” which some of you might already know, but for beginners, here’s a brief explanation:

“This album was live-recorded at the Cellar club in Vancouver before a small audience. To compensate for the lackluster atmosphere, Fantasy’s producer at the time overlaid large applause from Cal Tjader’s ‘Concert by the Sea’ (Fantasy 3341) recorded in Monterey. This release restores the original recording by removing those applause overlays.”

The album title “DANGEROUS” and its yellow and black hazard symbol warn us to stay vigilant with Fantasy, which continues to be full of surprises.

Check out related articles for more about this album.(open Original Web site)