Airegin (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).

The title of the theme is “Nigeria” written backwards, and Sonny Rollins wasn’t the only one who did this kind of game with the title of his compositions. The song gained relevance when it was published in 1954 on Miles Davis’s album Bag’s Grove, which produced three standards: “Airegin”, “Doxy” and “Oleo”. Its harmonic structure is complicated. At a time when other jazz musicians were increasing their audience by using fresh melodies or an earthy funky, Rollins was writting themes that would attract other horn players instead of jukeboxes customers.

Miles Davis recorded it again two years later on his album Cookin’, in which he slightly changed the harmony and Coltrane showed that he could play it as skillfully as its creator. It has versions of Phil Woods, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Grant Green and many other musicians, including Jon Hendricks with lyrics on vocalese style on his album The Singers! in 1958 and that of the Manhattan Transfer’s in their 1985 album Vocalese.

The group exposes the theme and Montgomery begins his solo at high speed with a sweeping discourse followed by a solo using octaves, in which he plays each note along with it, but a higher octave, and it’s a technique he invented. This changes the sound, but the solo is slower. He is followed by Flanagan in the same fast-paced and brave way with precisely chained continuous phrases. Next we listen to a walking performance by Percy Heath and then Montgomery exchanges four-bar solos with Albert Heath, who plays bursts of drum beats. At the end, the group re-exposes the theme.