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Wes Montgomery
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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."
Aleph Aguiar: Sugar On My Blackbeans
by Neil Duggan
Sugar On My Blackbeans is the third release from Venezuelan-born, UK-based guitarist Aleph Aguiar. It follows on from Pataruco (Self Produced, 2015) and Maku (Self Produced, 2017). He has spent the intervening years working with Tony Kofi, Elton John and Georgia Cecile and served as the guitar and singing coach for Simon Bird for the 2014 ...
Loren Schoenberg, Horace Silver, and Masabumi Kikuchi
by Jerome Wilson
This episode features music by Loren Schoenberg, Horace Silver, Joe Gallant, Masabumi Kikuchi, and Chet Baker among others. Playlist Henry Threadgill Sextett “I Can't Wait Till I Get Home" from The Complete Novus & Columbia Recordings of Henry Threadgill & Air (Mosaic) 00:00 Sebastien Ammann's Color Wheel “Castello di Traliccio" from Resilience (Skirl) 00:59 ...
Mary Halvorson: About the Ghosts in the Guitar
by Dean Nardi
No, guitarheads, recently Mary Halvorson has been inspired to put out records with her Amaryllis sextet more so than some jaggedy, lyrical shredding, but these are pretty darn good jazz records from a tight ensemble consisting of Adam O'Farrill (trumpet), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Patricia Brennan (vibraphone) and a rhythm section of Nick Dunston (bass) and Tomas ...
Alex Skolnick Trio: Prove You're Not a Robot
by Glenn Astarita
Few musicians have leapt the chasm between thrash metal and jazz with the audacity and grace of Alex Skolnick. Having made his name with Bay Area thrashers Testament in their Big Four-era ascent, Skolnick's departure from metal in the early '90s was not burnout, but a transformation fueled by his pursuit of a BFA in jazz ...
Wes Montgomery: Boss Guitar
by C. Andrew Hovan
By the time Wes Montgomery left us in 1968 at just 45, he had already produced a staggering body of work. To say he changed the way musicians approached the guitar forever is no overstatement. Thanks to producer Orrin Keepnews, Montgomery documented his prime years on Riverside, recording nearly a dozen albums between 1959 and 1963. ...
Louis Stewart & Brian Dunning: Alone Together
by Ian Patterson
Re-releases and archival recordings are so abundant these days that it is easy to take for granted the work involved in dusting down and polishing up old recordings. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Dermot Rogers--the man at the helm of the revived Livia Records--Irish guitarist Louis Stewart's discography is being lovingly restored and reissued. Hats ...
Nigel Price Organ Trio At Magy's Farm
by Ian Patterson
Nigel Price Organ Trio Magy's Farm Dromara, N. IrelandNovember 29, 2025 You probably have to go back to the Duke Ellington Orchestra in the '50s to find a harder-touring jazz outfit than the Nigel Price Organ Trio. Between the beginning of April and the end of June 1950 Ellington led his musicians through 74 ...
Will Barnes Quartet: Outside the Light
by Neil Duggan
Once an area of contention, the border between England and Wales, known as the Welsh Marches, is now a lovely rural region of farms, valleys, hills and castles. The Will Barnes Quartet draw inspiration from this landscape, as well as that of Mid Wales, to drive their compositions and improvisations on Outside The Light. This major ...
Melvin Rhyne: Tomorrow Yesterday Today
by C. Andrew Hovan
A disciple of some of the earliest jazz organ practitioners, such as Jackie Davis, Milt Buckner, and Wild Bill Davis, jazz veteran Melvin Rhyne's major claim to fame has been the five years he spent with the renowned Wes Montgomery in the early '60s. Yet this is really only a fraction of the story for the ...
