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Wes Montgomery

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States (where he also died of a heart attack in 1968), Montgomery came from a musical family, in which his brothers, Monk (string bass and electric bass) and Buddy (vibraphone, and piano), were jazz performers. Although Wes was not skilled at reading music, he could learn complex melodies and riffs by ear. Montgomery started learning guitar in his late teens, listening to and learning recordings of his idol, the guitarist Charlie Christian.

Along with the use of octaves (playing the same note on two strings one octave apart) for which he is widely known, Montgomery was also an excellent "single-line" or "single-note" player, and was very influential in the use of block chords in his solos. His playing on the jazz standard "Lover Man" is an example of his single-note, octave and block chord soloing. ("Lover Man" appears on the Fantasy album THE MONTGOMERY BROTHERS.) Instead of using a guitar pick, Montgomery 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 L-5CES guitar. 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. 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 The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, which was recorded as a quartet with pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath. The album featured one of Montgomery's most well-known 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. As a considered founder of the Smooth Jazz school the album "Bumpin'" (1965) represents a model from which many modern recording are derived. In it, a full orchestral type of scoring goes beyond the artist's own ability to riff creating a wholistic concept of music and of Jazz. Longer clips from all of the tracks tracks on "Bumpin'" and other Wes Montgomery albums are found on Verve Records website.

By the time Montgomery released his first album for A&M Records, he had seemingly totally abandoned the straightforward jazz of his earlier career for the more lucrative pop market. 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. Montgomery's home town of Indianapolis has named a park in his honor.

Many jazz and rock guitarists today list Montgomery among their influences including: Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Martino, Lee Ritenour, Pat Metheny, George Benson, Pete Smyser, Chris Standring, Eric Johnson, Yoshiaki Miyanoue and Joe Satriani. 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.[citation needed] Many songwriters and composers have written musical tributes to him, including Stevie Wonder and Eric Johnson.

Awards

1965; received Grammy Award for Goin' Out of My Head as Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by Large Group or Soloist with Large Group and The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, earned him Down Beat magazine's "New Star" award in 1960

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Wes Montgomery: Maximum Swing: The Unissued 1965 Half Note Recordings

Read "Maximum Swing: The Unissued 1965 Half Note Recordings" reviewed by Mario Calvitti

by Mario Calvitti
February 20, 2024

La Resonance Records, etichetta californiana legata a un'organizzazione non-profit dedita a preservare l'arte e l'eredità della musica jazz, prosegue instancabile la sua attività di archeologia musicale pubblicando questo doppio CD di Wes Montgomery col trio del pianista Wynton Kelly al famoso club di New York Half Note nel 1965, all'incirca nello stesso periodo delle esibizioni raccolte nell'album Smokin' at the Half Note. I brani contenuti in questa raccolta provengono da cinque diverse date comprese tra il 24 Settembre e la ...

Album Review

Wes Montgomery: The Complete Full House Recordings

Read "The Complete Full House Recordings" reviewed by Mark Sullivan

by Mark Sullivan
December 21, 2023

Wes Montgomery's original Full House album (Riverside, 1962) comprised six tracks; the 1987 CD edition had nine tracks, with alternate takes plus the addition of “Born to be Blue"; the 2007 reissue was expanded to eleven tracks. This complete edition has fourteen tracks, including all of the previously released alternate takes as well as the completely unedited master take of the title tune, with Montgomery's original guitar solo restored. That restoration is the big news for completists but, for everyone ...

Album Review

Wes Montgomery: The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings

Read "The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
March 5, 2021

Recorded in spring 1965, during Wes Montgomery's sole European tour, The NDR Hamburg Studio Recordings presents the guitarist as part of an all-star international octet assembled for a one-off appearance on German television station NDR. The programme was part of a series presenting musicians who did not regularly work together in informal “rehearsal" performances. Montgomery's tour, on which he appeared with both his own quartet and local rhythm sections, has been well documented on official and unofficial recordings. But this ...

Radio & Podcasts

The Soul Jazz Guitar of Montgomery, Burrell and Green (1960 - 1965)

by Russell Perry
March 31, 2020

Hard bop created a comfortable setting for a suite of great blues-influenced guitar players who led the way toward soul jazz. Several of these players were from the mid-west -Wes Montgomery from Indianapolis, Grant Green from St. Louis and Detroit's Kenny Burrell. The next three hours of Jazz at 100 will present music from the 1960s that combined the heavy beat and blues-influenced phrasing of R&B with the harmonic discoveries of bebop to create a style loosely called Soul Jazz, ...

Radio & Podcasts

Zev Feldman: The Jazz Detective Speaks

by Leo Sidran
December 17, 2019

In this podcast conversation, record producer Zev Feldman explains how he got started in the jazz business as a young man (in his early 20s) and came up through the ranks of sales ("schlepping a bag of CDs"), merchandising, marketing, distribution -all of the pieces of the business as it existed at the end of the last century. Over time he came to settle comfortably in an area of the jazzosphere that focuses on locating, unearthing and releasing previously unknown ...

Year in Review

Mark Werlin's Notable Hi-Res Releases in 2018

by Mark Werlin
December 19, 2018

2018 has been a good year for jazz music in hi-res audio formats. ECM, Songlines, Intakt, ACT Music, Firehouse 12, Foné, Mack Avenue, TRPTK, and other independent labels released newly-recorded and recent catalog albums in high resolution through download vendors, Bandcamp, and the labels' own websites. One US music vendor lists more than 300 jazz titles that became available as hi-res downloads in 2018. High resolution audio has become increasingly affordable and widespread, with hi-res DACs included in portable and ...

Album Review

Wes Montgomery: In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording

Read "In Paris: The Definitive ORTF Recording" reviewed by Maurizio Comandini

by Maurizio Comandini
February 7, 2018

27 marzo 1965. Parigi, Teatro dei Champs--Élysées. Il quartetto di Wes Montgomery si esibisce per gli appassionati parigini e conferma di essere uno dei gruppi più interessanti del momento. Il sassofonista Johnny Griffin si aggiunge in tre brani e si alterna al chitarrista per assoli scoppiettanti e carichi di guizzi improvvisi e colpi d'ala maestosi. Il chitarrista di Indianapolis era nel pieno della sua maturità artistica, aveva 42 anni (compiuti ventun giorni prima) e sfortunatamente gli restavano solo tre anni ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wes Montgomery

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2023

All About Jazz is celebrating Wes Montgomery's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wes Montgomery

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Wes Montgomery's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wes Montgomery

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Wes Montgomery's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wes Montgomery

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Wes Montgomery's birthday today!

Video / DVD

Wes Montgomery: Back on Indy

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 22, 2019

Back in 2012, Resonance producer Zev Feldman was contacted by Brook Reindollar, who worked with Carroll DeCamp, an Indianapolis pianist and self-taught arranger. Reindollar said he had digital audio tapes (DAT) of guitarist Wes Montgomery recorded in Indianapolis. Reindollar was passed along to Zev by Lewis Porter, a jazzz historian, professor of music at Rutgers University and pianist. Reindollar said part of the DAT was recorded in a studio while the balance was live. Fortunately for us, DeCamp in the ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wes Montgomery

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2019

All About Jazz is celebrating Wes Montgomery's birthday today!

Place our Musician of ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Wes Montgomery

Source: Michael Ricci
March 6, 2018

All About Jazz is celebrating Wes Montgomery's birthday today!

Place our Musician of ...
read more

Recording

Wes Montgomery: Paris, '65

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
January 29, 2018

Wes Montgomery was puzzled. Like most leading jazz musicians in 1965, the guitarist didn't think much of the pop-chart scene. Many top jazz artists felt the music was painfully repetitious and that many lousy musicians were making a lot of fast money. Geared to the kid market, the music, jazz musicians felt, lacked substance. Hence, jazz musicians who covered the stuff sounding like silly sell-outs. So when Verve producer Creed Taylor turned up at Montgomery's gig at New York's Half ...
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