John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist. He was born (March 6, 1925) in Indianapolis, Indiana, part of a musical family including his brothers, Monk (string bass, electric bass) and Buddy (vibraphone, piano). He died of a heart attack on June 15, 1968. He is the grandfather of actor Anthony Montgomery.
Technique and gear
Montgomery started learning guitar only in his late teens, listening obsessively to recordings of his idol, Charlie Christian. Within a relatively short period of time, he could play Christian solos verbatim.
Montgomery was not skilled at reading music, but he had an instinctive knowledge of jazz harmony and an incredible command of the fretboard. Along with the use of octaves for which he is widely known, Montgomery was also an excellent single-line player, and was very influential in the use of block chords in his solos.
Montgomery employed an interesting guitar technique; he did not use a pick. Rather, he plucked the strings with the fleshy part of his thumb, using downstrokes for single notes and a combination of upstrokes and downstrokes for chords and octaves. This technique enabled him to get a mellow, expressive tone from his guitar. George Benson, in the liner notes of the Ultimate Wes Montgomery album, wrote that "Wes had a corn on his thumb, which gave his sound that point. He would get one sound for the soft parts, and then that point by using the corn. That's why no one will ever match Wes. And his thumb was double-jointed. He could bend it all the way back to touch his wrist, which he would do to shock people."
He generally played a Gibson guitar, usually an L-5CES. In his later years he played one of two guitars that Gibson custom made for him.
In his early years, Montgomery had a tube amp, often a Fender. In his later years he played a Standel.
Recording career
Montgomery toured with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's orchestra from July 1948 to January 1950, and can be heard on recordings from this period. Montgomery then returned to Indianapolis and did not record again until December 1957 (save for one session in 1955), when he took part in a session that included his brothers Monk and Buddy, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who made his recording debut with Montgomery. Most of the recordings made by Montgomery and his brothers from 1957-1959 were released on the Pacific Jazz label.
From 1959 Montgomery was signed to the Riverside Records label, and remained there until late 1963, just before the company went bankrupt. The recordings made during this period are widely considered by fans and jazz historians to be Montgomery's best and most influential.
Two sessions in January 1960 yielded his most acclaimed album, The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. Recorded as a quartet with pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath, the album featured one of Montgomery's most famous compositions, "Four on Six."
Almost all of Montgomery's output on Riverside featured the guitarist in a small group setting, usually a quartet or quintet, playing a mixture of hard-swinging uptempo jazz numbers and quiet ballads.
In 1964 Montgomery moved to Verve Records for two years. His stay at Verve yielded a number of albums where he was featured with an orchestra, and during this period Montgomery's music started to shift in to the territory of pop music. One notable exception is 1965's Smokin' at the Half Note, which showcased two memorable appearances at the famous New York City club with the Wynton Kelly Trio. Wes continued to play outstanding live jazz guitar, as evidenced by surviving audio and video recordings from his 1965 tour of Europe.
By the time Montgomery released his first album for A&M Records, he had seemingly totally abandoned the straightforward jazz of his earlier career in favor of pop. The three albums released during his A&M period (1967-68) feature orchestral renditions of famous pop songs ("Scarborough Fair," "I Say a Little Prayer for You," "Eleanor Rigby," etc.) with Montgomery reciting the melody with his guitar. While these records were the most commercially successful of his career, they are now poorly regarded by some fans and critics. Many jazz guitarists, however, are amazed with his innovative solo riffs and creative chord comping even on the renditions of pop songs he performed later in his brief career.
After his death
Many jazz guitarists today list Montgomery among their influences, including Pat Martino, Lee Ritenour, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Pete Smyser, Chris Standring, and Yoshiaki Miyanoue. By some accounts, Montgomery has been the most influential jazz guitarist of all time, whose style has transcended into other forms of music, including Rock 'n' Roll, Soul, and Rhythm and Blues. Many songwriters and composers have written musical tributes to him, including Stevie Wonder.
Montgomery's home town of Indianapolis has named a park in his honor. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Wes Montgomery (1925-1968) was one of the best jazz guitar players. He was known for his innovations such as using his thumb instead of a pick and the use of Octaves and Block Chords to play melody lines. The picture above shows Wes with his trademark Gibson L-5 Electric Guitar. To learn more about Wes Montgomery, visit the web sites to the left.
