Gone With the Wind (Wes Montgomery’s version)

Wes Montgomery (electric guitar), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Albert Heath (drums). From the album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960).

Percy Heath was an American jazz bassist. In 1947, he and his saxophonist brother Jimmy toured with bebop trumpeter Howard McGhee’s sextet. In the late 1940s the two brothers moved to New York, where Percy played with the most important bebop musicians and was reunited with his brother from 1950 to 1952 in Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. In 1951, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, pianist John Lewis, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke, all members of the big band, formed a group they called the Milt Jackson Quartet, but in 1952 Percy Heath replaced Brown and the group was renamed the Modern Jazz Quartet.

His precise tone and cool sound was ideal for a band dedicated to being the jazz equivalent of chamber music. In 1955, Connie Kay took Clarke’s place. When the quartet was not on tour, Heath worked as a studio musician, appearing on more than 300 albums. When the Modern Jazz Quartet was dissolved due to financial difficulties in 1974, he worked briefly with singer Sarah Vaughan and then formed a band with his brothers and pianist Stanley Cowell. In 1983 the Modern Jazz Quartet was re-formed and his brother Albert replaced Key when he died in 1984. The band stopped playing in 1997. Percy Heath died in 2005 of bone cancer at 82 years of age.

This is a very swinging, medium tempo theme that Montgomery interprets optimistically. His solo is friendly and playful making surprising phrases, and continues in the same manner with his solo using octaves. His imagination seems to have no limits. Then he plays inspired melodies using chord blocks with amazing ease. Afterwards he uses the octaves again with infinite mastery and exquisite taste, and ends the theme with a small arrangement.