Results for "Wes Montgomery"

Wes Montgomery

Born: March 6, 1923

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."

Rob Dixon: Naptown Soul

by Jack Bowers
October 19, 2026

Saxophonist Rob Dixon, who has called Naptown (aka Indianapolis) home for most of his adult life, salutes the city's enviable jazz heritage on Naptown Soul, leading a splendid quartet through its paces on four of his original compositions (one of which opens the album and three of which close it), a pair by Indy legend Wes ...

Dida Pelled, Zuri Alexander, Myra Melford, Tara Davidson, Gaia Wilmer & More

by Mary Foster Conklin
October 12, 2026

This broadcast includes new music from Dida Pelled, Zuri Alexander, Myra Melford, Tara Davidson, Gaia Wilmer plus singles from Amy London and Jenny Scheinman, with birthday shoutouts to Koko Taylor, Nancy Harrow, Patrice Rushen, Susaye Greene, Hyuna Park, Melissa Stylianou, Lauren White, Carolina Calvache, among others. Happy listening and please support the artists you hear--see them ...

A Language of His Own: Bill Frisell on Dave Holland

by Ludovico Granvassu
October 1, 2026

As part of our Celebration of Dave Holland, we invited Bill Frisell to share a few thoughts about a musician who has been an important part of his musical world for decades. Bill had rather a lot to say, and it seemed a shame to stop at a few thoughts. So, rather than squeezing ...

Al Naffah: The Filmmaker

by B.D. Lenz
September 30, 2026

One of the things I've come to appreciate about jazz is just how much history there is that I still don't know. Take Emily Remler. I'm a guitarist; I've spent most of my life listening to and playing jazz, and yet, embarrassingly, I knew very little about Remler before learning about Firefly: The Emily ...

John Coltrane At 100: A Global Perspective

by Ian Patterson
September 23, 2026

With the advent of his birth centenary, John William Coltrane is on our minds again. But then he nearly always is. His influence on generations of saxophonists is palpable. For countless musicians the term “Coltranesque" can be a badge of honor or a millstone around the neck. With the exception perhaps of Miles Davis--whose centenary also ...

Peter Sprague: Guinnevere

by Jim Trageser
September 15, 2026

Peter Sprague, the San Diego-based guitarist who has gigged with everyone from Chick Corea to Hubert Laws, Charles McPherson to Dianne Reeves, seems to be accelerating his recording output of late. He is averaging more than two albums a year as leader the past half-decade, plus guest appearances on numerous others. And all of this is ...

Thirty Essential Transformative Guitarists

by Alan Bryson
September 9, 2026

"Best guitarist" lists are inherently subjective--often nonsensical. They rank the unrankable, folding popularity, technique, cultural impact, sales, and personal taste into a single hierarchy. This list takes a different approach, acknowledging thirty guitarists who transformed the instrument itself: they created new techniques, pioneered fresh concepts, expanded its sonic vocabulary, and changed how those who followed them played. ...

John Coltrane in Detroit: A Brief History

by Paul Rauch
September 8, 2026

When the calendar turned to 2026, a spirit of celebration was sparked in the jazz community. It marked one hundred years from the birth dates of two jazz titans in John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Coltrane departed us in 1967 from cancer, a life of barely more than forty years that changed the course of jazz. ...

The Joshua Breakstone Quartet: Wonderful!

by Neil Duggan
August 17, 2026

This is a reissue of Joshua Breakstone's debut as leader. The recording, which has been out of print for nearly 40 years, dates back to 1984, when the guitarist was 27 years old. It also marks the first time the recording has been available on CD. While many guitarists of a similar vintage built ...