Revisiting A&M Records No. 36
Wes Montgomery: ‘Down Here on the Ground’ (April ‘68)
Perspectives shift and refocus with time and experience, that’s undeniable. So when I listen again to oft-maligned music from several decades ago, and discover how much I enjoy it, I still try my best to hear hints of what others once found so problematic.
Initially I’d planned for this lengthy look back at A&M Records to be a series of twofers, the better to coincide with #VinylTwosDays, a weekly scene I’m always happy to join. But as I started sorting through titles and structuring future installments, it quickly occurred to me that not everything will pair up so pleasingly.
Today’s #TuesdaysWithJerry topic: samplers!
I wish more labels had kept up with this promotional practice, tossing together gateway tracks as a means of enticing ears to seek out more from their rosters, while sometimes slipping in a rarity or two to help such things become collector’s items.
Music moguls have rarely been as monumentally influential as Jerry Moss was. Last week’s loss of the M half of A&M Records — Herb Alpert, the A, is still kicking at 88, the same age his partner reached — rises to a level of recognition reserved for legendary scene-shapers such as Mo Ostin at Warner/Reprise or Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic. Like those fellow Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, Moss was a crucial titan with a decades-deep effect on careers and stylistic shifts.
