Nelson Riveros’ Latin Tribute to Wes Montgomery

I suppose it would be fair to say that jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery was one of the musicians that helped me get through the pandemic. This may sound somewhat anachronistic, given that Montgomery died of a heart attack on June 15, 1968 at the regrettably early age of 45. However, like many, I turned to streamed video as a viable alternative to attending concerts; and this provided me with an opportunity to listen to archival content.

Some readers may recall that one of my video sources was a DVD series entitled Jazz Icons. The content of several of these releases had been uploaded to YouTube; and, while I had more than my share of frustrations when it came to digging up background material for these videos, there was still much to be gained from watching the performances led by the “iconic” musicians in this series. One of the less frustrating of these offerings was Wes Montgomery: Live in ’65, which turned out to be a satisfying complement to my anthology of Montgomery’s Riverside recordings.

Late last month I learned that ZOHO had released an album entitled The Latin Side of Wes Montgomery, which featured a Latin jazz take on seven of Montgomery’s compositions. The arrangements were prepared by guitarist Nelson Riveros, who provided just the right balance of the inventiveness of Montgomery’s tunes with his own impressively-developed Latin aesthetic. Riveros led a quintet whose other members included Colombian pianist Hector Martignon, Andy McKee on bass, Mark Walker on drums, and percussionist Jonathan Gomez. Riveros also composed two “tribute pieces” for the album, “Nelson’s Groove” and “Facing Wes.”

I have to say that, were it not for Gomez’ percussion work, I would probably hesitate in calling this a “Latin album.” The fact is that there was considerable diversity in Montgomery’s “book,” which is one of the factors that makes the full Riverside anthology so engaging. Riveros’ arrangements leave one with the impression that he wanted to respect all that diversity without overshadowing it with too much of a “Latin accent.”

courtesy of Jazz Promo Services

Nevertheless, I have to say that the Jazz Icons video led me down new paths of appreciating Montgomery’s performances. When I wrote about the viewing experience, I singled out the “generous number of camera angles for both left-hand fingering and right-hand plucking.” The photograph of Riveros on the album cover suggests that he was as sensitive to honoring Montgomery’s performance technique as he was in selecting the compositions to perform. To be fair, there is a YouTube preview video for this album, which offers a few satisfying views of Riveros’ finger technique. However, there is clearly far more to this technique than can be excerpted to only six minutes of video!

The good news is that San Francisco has long been a venue that is conducive to both guitarists and those attending guitar performances; so there should be at least some hope that, after we emerge from lockdown, Riveros will be able to bring his talents to a stage in our city.