Varied Impressions

Caught a piece on NPR this week that had jazz author Ashley Kahn talking about the new Verve reissue of Wes Montgomery’s “Smokin’ at the Half Note” with the Wynton Kelly Trio (Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb, off their stint with Miles Davis).

I may have to pick it up because it has six more cuts, 11 in all, than the old CD version I own, including one of “Impressions” that sounded cool in the radio report.

The aural contrasts when guys and gals take the same song and make it their own endear jazz to me, among other things. I’d like to hear Montgomery and Coltrane doing “Impressions” back to back.

I recommend Kahn’s books “Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece” and “A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album.” Good reads and good insight into how these two classics were birthed.