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."

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 ...

Clovis Nicolas: Blues in Blueprint: 12 Variations on the Blues

by Angelo Leonardi
August 13, 2026

Il contrabbassista Clovis Nicolas presenta dodici differenti interpretazioni del blues, interpretando in trio brani personali e temi appartenenti ad epoche e autori  diversi: dai tradizionali “Abide with Me" e “Old Stack O'Lee Blues" a Duke Ellington, Wes Montgomery, Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley e altri. Con lui sono Carl Allen alla batteria e ...

John Shannon: A Day In Tarifa

by Joshua Weiner
August 10, 2026

Pittsburgh guitarist John Shannon began playing at age six, was performing around his hometown by his high school years, and has been recording with a variety of acoustic, rock and film music projects since 2008. A Day in Tarifa is his debut jazz album, and it lands firmly in the tradition, with a diverse and beguiling ...

Joe Alterman on Mentors, the Blue Note, and Keeping Jazz Joyful

by Mike Jones
August 10, 2026

Joe Alterman fell for jazz at his dad's backyard barbecues... Wes Montgomery and Oscar Peterson over the steaks. He's spent his life chasing that same high. A 37-year-old pianist from Atlanta, Alterman talks with Mike Jones about coming up through an internship at the Blue Note, where his first assignment was keeping McCoy Tyner company for ...

Trish Clowes: Try Me

by Ian Patterson
July 21, 2026

With Try Me saxophonist-composer Trish Clowes joins a starry cast of artists inspired by London--its history, architecture, landscape and multi-cultural streets. From William Blake to Benjamin Zephaniah, from Charles Dickens to Hanif Kureishi, from Ralph Vaughan Williams to The Kinks, and from Claude Monet to the late David Hockney, England's capital has fed the creative spirit ...

Deirdre Cartwright: Organik

by Neil Duggan
July 7, 2026

Multi-award-winning guitarist Deirdre Cartwright returns 15 years after her previous release with Organik. Far from relaxing in the intervening years, she has been collaborating widely, performing with the Alison Rayner Quintet, winning the public vote for Best Guitarist at the 2019 British Jazz Awards and authoring several guitar tuition books. The album points towards ...