In honor of Black History month Mixtape108.com shares with the masses this 1965 concert of the legendary jazz musician Wes Montgomery.... Wes was popularly known for his unique guitar playing skills. Truly one of the most memorable guitarists of all time.
Wes Montgomery, whose real name was John Leslie Montgomery was born on March 6, 1923 in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. This is the same place he died due to a heart attack on June 15, 1968. Wes Montgomery was influenced in music early on. He came from a family of jazz performers and instrumentalists. His brother Monk played electric bass and string bass, while Buddy played piano and vibraphone. What about Wes? He decided to play guitar in his teen years.
Wes wasn’t fond of reading music. Instead, he preferred to learn melodies and riffs through hearing. When he started playing the guitar, his inspiration was Charlie Christian; he was Wes’ idol. Wes listened to his recordings and learned from them.
Wes Montgomery used different techniques in playing the guitar. The first was using octaves. This is a technique where you play the same note on two strings but it’s an octave apart. Wes was very much known for this technique. Another technique Wes was known for was called the single-line or single-note. And also, his block chord soloing.
His ability to play these techniques has something to do with how he plucked the strings of his guitar. Just so you know, Wes didn’t use any guitar picks. Rather, he used a fleshy part of his thumb to create the unique sound. What Wes did was use down strokes for the single notes and then use a mix of up strokes and down strokes for the octave and block chords.
Such techniques allowed Wes to create music that was mellow and very expressive (in his own way). Wes said in his Ultimate Wes Montgomery album that he had a corn on his thumb which enabled him to play that way and create the unique sounds. This is the major reason why no one can do what Wes did. And to top it all off, Wes’ thumb was double-jointed.
Wes’ career started around July 1948 when he started touring with Lionel Hampton’s orchestra. He toured with them for two years. By 1950, Wes returned to Indianapolis and stopped recording until 1957. But in December 1957, he joined a session with his brothers and Freddie Hubbard. The group released several recordings from 1957 to 1959.
From 1959, Wes moved to Riverside Records label and recorded for them until 1963. His records during this time were received by his fans very well. According to jazz historians, these records were his most influential and best ones. In 1960, Wes released the album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, where he played together with Albert “Tootie” Heath, Percy Heath and Tommy Flanagan. This album featured one of his best compositions, Four on Six. During his time with Riverside Records label, Wes always played with a quartet or quintet. They played ballads and up tempo jazz.
Source: Learn Guitar 2
