Back On Indiana Avenue: The Carroll DeCamp Recordings

Resonance Records delves deeper into the early, unheard work of the innovative and influential guitarist Wes Montgomery.

The album includes essays by jazz scholar Lewis Porter and Resonance co-president and producer Zev Feldman; plus interviews with master jazz guitarists George Benson and John Scofield; saxophonist, educator, and publisher Jamey Aebersold; and guitarist Royce Campbell, nephew of Carroll DeCamp, the late Indiana musician and arranger who captured the revelatory music heard on the new album.

On the DeCamp recordings, Montgomery is heard in full flight in a variety of settings - piano quartets, organ trios, sextets, and drummer-less Nat "King" Cole-style trios. Though DeCamp made no notes on the personnel, dedicated research and listening by Porter and the late musician and educator David Baker suggests that the players included such close associates as Montgomery's brother Buddy, the guitarist's longtime organist Melvin Rhyne, pianist John Bunch, and even the legendary Indianapolis-born pianist Carl Perkins just to name a few.

The 22 selections on Back on Indiana Avenue include embryonic versions of several of the numbers Montgomery would record at his early sessions for Riverside, including "Round Midnight," "Jingles," "Whisper Not," "The End of a Love Affair," "Ecaroh," "West Coast Blues," "Four On Six," "Mister Walker," "Tune-Up," and "Sandu."