Home » Search Center » Results: Wes Montgomery
Results for "Wes Montgomery"
Results for pages tagged "Wes Montgomery"...
Wes Montgomery
Born:
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."
BIG January Birthday Salutes!
by Marc Cohn
BIG, I mean BIG January birthday salutes on Gifts & Messages this week: 120th birth anniversary for trombonists Juan Tizol and Wilbur De Paris; 110th for Django Reinhardt; 100th for vocalist Betty Roché and saxophonist Jimmy Forrest; 90th for saxophonist Jack Nimitz, trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and pianist/vibraphonist Buddy Montgomery. And special birthday greetings to bassist Eberhard ...
Tales of The Mystic Order of the Jazz Obsessed - Jazz Societies, Part II
by Karl Ackermann
Part 1 | Part 2 Jazz Societies, Part 1 briefly traced the preservation and interpretation of jazz from the oral history of its West African roots through academic and cultural institutions. The article included an overview of jazz societies and foundations that further the fostering of jazz education. The organizations vary in scope, size ...
Vic Juris: Tension and Release
by Victor L. Schermer
This article was first published at All About Jazz on July 28, 2009. Vic Juris is one of the premier jazz guitarists in the business today. Perhaps less known than some of his peers, he is nevertheless admired by all of them and has accumulated, since his emergence on the scene in the 1970s, ...
Wes’s Best: The Best of Wes Montgomery on Resonance
Label: Resonance Records
Released: 2019
Track listing: Jingles; Mr. Walker; West Coast Blues; Four on Six; Once I Loved (O Amor em Paz); Wes’ Tune; Li’l Darling; Going Down to Big Mary’s; Diablo’s Dance; Nica’s Dream; Give Me the Simple Life; ‘Round Midnight.
Will Sellenraad - Eric McPherson - Rene Hart: Greene Street Vol.1
by Geno Thackara
Considering how well Will Sellenraad clearly knows the history and ins-and-outs of jazz guitar, he might seem to be making a statement by using a title so reminiscent of Grant Green's classic Green Street (Blue Note, 1961). To be sure, this one does show the influence of some key six-stringers such as Green, Wes Montgomery, Pat ...
50th Anniversary Blue Notes for December, Including The Rare Jazz Wave on Tour
by Marc Cohn
50th anniversary Blue Notes from December 1969 this week from Jack McDuff (Moon Rappin') and Reuben Wilson (the seriously greasy Blue Mode) and part of a Donald Byrd session (Kofi) only released 25 years after the fact! Then, there's this one: Jazz Wave Ltd. on Tour, Volume 1. It's a double LP (it's in my lap ...
Ted Quinlan: Absolutely Dreaming
by Friedrich Kunzmann
Toronto-based guitarist Ted Quinlan is a Canadian institution on the instrument and constantly in high demand. Over the years he has performed as a sideman alongside famed musicians such as Chet Baker, Jimmy Smith or Dave Holland, while keeping busy as a leader. His guitar tone varies from clean and smooth to fuzzy and rough, channeling ...
Larry Fuller Trio At The Jazz Corner
by Martin McFie
The Larry Fuller Trio The Jazz Corner Overjoyed Hilton Head Island, SC November 22-23, 2019 On a Saturday afternoon between performances, Larry Fuller took a moment to talk about his music while enjoying a coffee break at the Sonesta Oceanfront hotel, on Hilton Head Island. In the morning, he had ...
Roger Kellaway: The Many Open Minds Of Roger Kellaway
by Dan Bilawsky
There's not a single category that can contain the wit and wonder that is Roger Kellaway. Over the past 60 years he's put his musical stamp on film, television, pop, rock, new age, ballet, and modern classical forms, garnering awards and acclaim wherever his pen and piano work happen to fall. And let's not forget jazz. ...
