Why this tune?
This week’s selection goes back to the standards with “Road Song,” a 1968 tune by Wes Montgomery. It was the title track of his album of that year, a “commercial” project that was also his last album. Montgomery died later that year of a heart attack.
The track list includes covers of several pop songs of the era, and was a continuation of Montgomery’s evolution from hard bop to more pop-oriented music. The album was indeed a commercial success, if not an artistic one. Critic Scott Yanow called it “a strictly for-the-money effort can be safely passed by.”
The title track, however, lives on as a jazz standard and jam session favorite.
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Wes Montgomery
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter 