1960 · Album
Cannonball Adderley and the Poll-Winners
Riverside Records · Produced by Orrin Keepnews
Wes Montgomery's Guitar in a Room of Giants
A all-star session that sounds uneasy, but fifty years later reveals something quietly generous.
What makes this album distinctive isn't Cannonball Adderley's alto saxophone, though he's the leader. It's Wes Montgomery's guitar. Montgomery had a way of making himself essential without dominating, and here he anchors what could have been a stiff all-star gathering. The DownBeat reviewer at the time heard exactly what the session felt like: strangers in a room, nobody quite comfortable with the tunes or each other. That's honest. Poll-winners albums were contractual things, dream rosters assembled for commercial appeal, and they often sounded like it. This one does too, at first listen.
But the Penguin Guide to Jazz heard something different decades later: the chance to hear Adderley, Ray Brown, and Montgomery in the same band, three players at the height of their powers. That's worth something. Montgomery's single-note lines and that thumb-picked tone of his pull the session toward something coherent, even when it doesn't quite gel. Victor Feldman on piano and Louis Hayes on drums are solid, steady—they're the scaffolding. But Montgomery's guitar is what keeps you listening when the chemistry feels forced.
This isn't a peak moment in any of these musicians' careers. It's a session album, which is its own category: competent, professional, sometimes beautiful in passing, but never quite essential. Start elsewhere with Adderley or Montgomery if you want to hear them at their best. But if you've come to know these players through their own records and want to hear them together, this offers exactly what it promises—proof that greatness in a room, even when it feels uncomfortable, still matters.
Who's playing
Ray Browndouble bass
Victor Feldmanpiano
Wes Montgomeryguitar
Cannonball Adderleyalto saxophone
Louis Hayesdrums
Where next?
More by Ray Brown
All 28 albums →
The musicians on this record
The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery 1960
Wes Montgomery
plays guitar here
plays guitar here
Somethin' Else 1958
Cannonball Adderley
plays alto saxophone here
plays alto saxophone here
