Jazz musician, born in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. A highly influential guitarist, with a distinctively mellow sound, he recorded from 1957 with his brothers Monk (William) Montgomery (192182, bassist) and Buddy (Charles) Montgomery (1930 , vibes) as The Montgomery Brothers. He made commercial big band albums in the mid-1960s, and appeared on television with Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass.
| John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery | |
|---|---|
| Wes Montgomery, 1965 | |
| Born |
March 6, 1925 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA |
| Died |
June 15, 1968 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA |
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist.
Technique
Montgomery came from a musical family, in which his brothers Monk (bass) and Buddy (vibes and piano) were jazz performers. 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. ("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.
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.
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.
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.
After his death
Many jazz and rock guitarists today list Montgomery among their influences including: Carlos Santana, 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.
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