The Mastersounds

[Jazz Kat]

My local vinyl shop has recently had a bunch of Mastersounds lp's for 8 dollars each. For some reason, I thought Wes was a part of this group, but anyway, it's just as good. I picked up Ballads and Blues. I never heard an electric bassist play so clean! I never heard Buddy and Monk before and I heard about the group so I bought it. It was pretty good. Any other fans out there?

[alocispepraluger102]

My local vinyl shop has recently had a bunch of Mastersounds lp's for 8 dollars each. For some reason, I thought Wes was a part of this group, but anyway, it's just as good. I picked up Ballads and Blues. I never heard an electric bassist play so clean! I never heard Buddy and Monk before and I heard about the group so I bought it. It was pretty good. Any other fans out there?

wes was on the kismet album, one of my favs.

[Jim R]

I'm a fan, and there are at least a few others here. We've talked about them on various threads (vibraphone topics, Connoisseur and boxed set wishlists, etc). Too "jazz lite" for some, but I suspect some aren't giving the music much of a chance. Maybe this kind of thing is an acquired taste for a lot of people, which is understandable. Anyway, cool that they have their own thread now.

Btw, if you want to hear Wes, Buddy and Monk together, there are a number of recordings by or with The Montgomery Brothers (Pac Jazz, Riverside, Fantasy, Jazzland...).

Edited July 7, 2007 by Jim R

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

grrrrrrr i was busy downloading 1960s polorid .jpgs of naked redheads doing unspeakable acts and **I** have to stop dead in my tracks to yell at you guys about how much the MASTERSOUNDS rock my sox.

KISMET on World Pacific////

"Introducing..." on Pacfic Jazz////

those are the two i have....

OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOOH BUT ON A BUSY STREETCORER THE OTHER DAY JUST FUCKING LAYING THERE ON THE GROUND, I SWEAR TO FUCING GOD JUST LYING THERE RIGHT ON THE STREET CORNER NEXT TO A TREE, AN LP COPY OF GEORGE SHEARING w/ THE MOUNTGOMERY BROS. ON JAZZLAND, FAIR, NOT POOR, BUT MAYBE "FAIR+" CONDITION!!!!!!! but does this count as a Mastersounds record, no?

what other mastersounds lps do you guys recommend on pacific jazz? all of them, right?

just so you guys know my friend Jay, AKA "DB4EVA" has declared this Sunday "international west coast jazz day" where w.c.j. is played all day long. i told him he is out of his gourd

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

re/ the fender bass, yes these records are sonically unique in that no other wcj was using an elec. bass, LET ALONE that w/ such clean sound such as that which is found on the p.j. and wpj lps------ they singlehandly altered the sonic fabric that which is wcj without making it swing less, like what happend later on when elec. basses were more freq. used-- it was cool to play more funky, or in weird, swing un-friendly time signatures (don ellis: the 'chick corea' of west coast jazz?)

[mikeweil]

Monk Montgomery was unique - perhaps there is some specialist here who konws what type of bass he used. IIRC he tried to emulate the feeling and swing of an upright, on which he was pretty good, too - he played upright on the Montgomery Brothers Riverside album, and on some others I have - e.g. the Johnny Griffin on Riverside with Buddy and Monk. I have the impression it took quite a while before the other bassists figured it out. Rock and soul bassists brought an entirely different approach to the instrument and its sound, which now totally dominates - Monk's approach seems to be forgotten.

I like it very much, too. There is a CD Fantasy FCD-24770-2 The Mastersounds with their two LPs Fantasy 3305 Swingin' with the Mastersounds and Fantasy 8062 A Date with the Mastersounds combined (one track left off for playing time restrictions), which you should get before it goes oop.

Since Buddy played vibes most of the time it provokes comparison with the Modern Jazz Quartet, and they come out fine, IMHO.

Count me in as a fan.

I always wondered why they chose that other group name - perhaps to point out the different approach when Wes was not playing - more elaborate arrangements etc.

Edited April 24, 2011 by mikeweil

[mikeweil]

The Mastersounds CD on Concord website

[mikeweil]

p.s. on the cover of that CD one can see that Monk uses a standard solid body Fender Jazz Bass. This makes his smooth sound all the more amazing. He plucks with the thumb on that pic, too - maybe this is a reason?

[ghost of miles]

Not 100% certain about this, but I think Monk was playing electric bass as far back as his stint with Lionel Hampton's big band in the early 1950s. (Wes was briefly in that band as well.)

Count me as a fan of the Mastersounds as well, though they do indeed skirt being MJQ-lite at times. I love their version of "We Kiss in a Shadow." Many thanks to sheldonm, who helped me acquire some of their oop music.

[JSngry]

Not 100% certain about this, but I think Monk was playing electric bass as far back as his stint with Lionel Hampton's big band in the early 1950s.

Yep.

In fact, I think that's where Fender approached him about trying the instrument.

[alocispepraluger102]

Not 100% certain about this, but I think Monk was playing electric bass as far back as his stint with Lionel Hampton's big band in the early 1950s. (Wes was briefly in that band as well.)

Count me as a fan of the Mastersounds as well, though they do indeed skirt being MJQ-lite at times. I love their version of "We Kiss in a Shadow." Many thanks to sheldonm, who helped me acquire some of their oop music.

do you have their 'kismet' vinyl?

[ghost of miles]

I think that's one I have on vinyl (at the station, so I can't check right now)... I have a hodgepodge of LPs and cd-rs, in addition to the Fantasy twofer CD.

[sheldonm]

Not 100% certain about this, but I think Monk was playing electric bass as far back as his stint with Lionel Hampton's big band in the early 1950s. (Wes was briefly in that band as well.)

Count me as a fan of the Mastersounds as well, though they do indeed skirt being MJQ-lite at times. I love their version of "We Kiss in a Shadow." Many thanks to sheldonm, who helped me acquire some of their oop music.

do you have their 'kismet' vinyl?

With the Montgomery brothers being from Indy, I've always been a fan. I got a chance to hear/photograph Buddy playing piano in the afternoon and vibes in the evening a while back....nice! ....a fan of everything Montgomery....even Elizabeth Montgomery

m~

[Jim R]

Was listening to some of their World Pacific stuff this morning (vinyl->CDR transfers), and I STILL think they deserve a Mosaic box...

[fasstrack]

grrrrrrr i was busy downloading 1960s polorid .jpgs of naked redheads doing unspeakable acts

I'm turnin' you in, buddy.

And they're coming for me next.........

Edited April 24, 2011 by fasstrack

[fasstrack]

Not 100% certain about this, but I think Monk was playing electric bass as far back as his stint with Lionel Hampton's big band in the early 1950s. (

You are right. There's a story in a recent autobiog---I've read so many I can't remember which now. It's about how Lionel Hampton, Illinois Jacquet, and Louis Armstrong's bands all tried to outdo each other in this theater. Hamp told Monk "Gates, I'll give you an extra ten if you 'jump in the river'" (jump from the balcony to the audience while playing). It's kind of hard to do this with a string bass

[medjuck]

Not 100% certain about this, but I think Monk was playing electric bass as far back as his stint with Lionel Hampton's big band in the early 1950s. (

You are right. There's a story in a recent autobiog---I've read so many I can't remember which now. It's about how Lionel Hampton, Illinois Jacquet, and Louis Armstrong's bands all tried to outdo each other in this theater. Hamp told Monk "Gates, I'll give you an extra ten if you 'jump in the river'" (jump from the balcony to the audience while playing). It's kind of hard to do this with a string bass

I think he jumped into the river from a boat they were playing on. Hampton wanted to do something spectacular because Jacquet had played Flying Home before he could.

[mikeweil]

FWIW, Fresh Sound reissued some of their albums:

3 LPs on 2 CDs: Play Horace Silver/Blues And Ballads/In Concert

2 LPs on 1 CD: Water's Edge - Introducing The Mastersounds (plus two bonus tracks)

I already have the latter - will give it a spin tomorrow.

Edited April 24, 2011 by mikeweil

[Jim R]

FWIW, Fresh Sound reissued some of their albums:

3 LPs on 2 CDs: Play Horace Silver/Blues And Ballads/In Concert

2 LPs on 1 CD: Water's Edge - Introducing The Mastersounds

I already have the latter - will give it a spin tomorrow.

Thanks Mike. I will keep my eyes open. I still think they would be a very good candidate for a boxed set, though.

I was listening to "The King And I", and was very impressed by the final track, "Epilogue". I heard a familiar theme at the beginning which I knew was not part of the Rodgers & Hammerstein score, and it took me several minutes to figure out that it was Buddy's composition "Lois Ann", which Wes recorded, as well as Shearing on the Jazzland album with the M Brothers. It was an extended version of "Lois Ann", which wove into a closing overture of the themes from "The King And I". An unusual way to close the album, which I thought worked quite well.

[mikeweil]

One correction: This was the group's debut LP (tracks 1-10 on the CD). Tracks 11-12 are bonus tracks from World Pacific anthologies recorded at the next session for thelabel; two more were made at that occasion.

The music is very good, and much less MJQ-sounding than most would expect. There is a lot more hardbop influence than the MJQ would ever give room to.

[Noj]

Wow, these look very much to my liking, and I've been meaning to get some Buddy Montgomery based on the track "1000 Rainbows" which marcoliv included in BFT #15.

[mikeweil]

Keep in mind that Buddy plays vibes exclusively on the Mastersounds recordings.

I still think they would be a very good candidate for a boxed set, though.

I doubt Mosaic would go for this - Cuscuna expressed his criticism about some of their arrangements when he included part of the tracks from Kismet on a Wes Montgomery Pacific Jazz reissue (Fingerpickin').

Edited April 24, 2011 by mikeweil

[Bluesnik]

there's another band called the mastersounds doing the rounds today (well, at least there was in 2006). they play deep funk, with a lot of funk, some hammond jazz, a lot of soul too and a bit of boogaloo. they're good and they are british, i think. a bit in the vein of the quantic soul orchestra.

[Noj]

Those are The New Mastersounds, Bluesnik. I like 'em. I didn't realize there was an original Mastersounds until this thread.

[Jim R]

Those are The New Mastersounds, Bluesnik. I like 'em. I didn't realize there was an original Mastersounds until this thread.

Check this out:

http://jazzprofiles.blogspot.com/2008/05/remembering-mastersounds.html