John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist.[1] Montgomery was known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb, and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a distinctive sound.
Montgomery often worked with his brothers Buddy (Charles F.) and Monk (William H.) and with organist Melvin Rhyne. His recordings up to 1965 were oriented towards hard bop, soul jazz, and post bop, but around 1965 he began recording more pop-oriented instrumental albums that found mainstream success. His later guitar style influenced jazz fusion and smooth jazz.
Biography
Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to NPR, the nickname "Wes" was a child's abbreviation of his middle name, Leslie.[2] The family was large, and the parents split up early in the lives of the children. Montgomery and his brothers moved to Columbus, Ohio, with their father and attended Champion High School. His older brother Monk dropped out of school to sell coal and ice, gradually saving enough money to buy his brother Wes a four-string tenor guitar from a pawn shop in 1935. Although Montgomery spent many hours with the guitar, he recounted this time later in life, saying he had to start over when he got his first six-string several years later.[3]
Montgomery in a mid-1960s publicity photo shot by Bruno of Hollywood studios for Verve Records
He and his brothers returned to Indianapolis. In 1943 Montgomery found work as a welder and got married. At a dance with his wife, he heard a Charlie Christian record for the first time. This motivated him to buy a six-string guitar the next day. For nearly a year, night and day, he tried to imitate Christian and teach himself the guitar. Although he hadn't intended to become a musician, he felt obligated to learn after buying the guitar. He received no formal instruction and couldn't read music. By the age of twenty he was performing in clubs in Indianapolis at night, copying Christian's solos, while working during the day, first at a milk company. In 1948, when Lionel Hampton was on tour in Indianapolis, he was looking for a guitarist, and after hearing Montgomery play like Christian he hired him.[3]
Montgomery spent two years with the Hampton band. Fear kept him from flying with the rest of the band, so he drove from city to city, town to town, while fellow musicians marveled at his stamina. When arriving at a club, the first thing he did was call home to his wife and family. He was given the opportunity to play with Charles Mingus, Milt Buckner, and Fats Navarro, but not the opportunity he hoped for, and he returned to Indianapolis a better player, though tired and discouraged. He resumed performing at local clubs, this time with the Eddie Higgins Trio and the Roger Jones Quintet, playing with Eddie Higgins, Walter Perkins, and Leroy Vinnegar. He joined his brothers Buddy and Monk and saxophonist Alonzo "Pookie" Johnson in the Johnson/Montgomery Quintet, somewhat in the style of George Shearing. The band auditioned for Arthur Godfrey and recorded sessions with Quincy Jones. After a residency at a club from 1955 to 1957, Montgomery and his brothers went west.[3]
Buddy and Monk Montgomery formed The Mastersounds and signed a contract with Dick Bock at Pacific Jazz. Montgomery joined them for a recording session in 1957 that included Freddie Hubbard. Some of the songs were released by Pacific Jazz on the album The Montgomery Brothers and Five Others, while others were issued on Fingerpickin' (Pacific Jazz, 1958). The Mastersounds remained in California when Montgomery returned to Indianapolis to work in his trio with organist Melvin Rhyne.[3]
He worked as a welder during the day to support his wife and seven children, then performed at two clubs at night until well into the morning. He was a smoker who had blackouts while trying to maintain this busy schedule. During one performance, the audience included Cannonball Adderley, George Shearing, and Lennie Tristano. Adderley was so impressed by Montgomery's guitar playing that he persuaded Orrin Keepnews to sign him to Riverside. Keepnews was also persuaded by a gushing review written by Gunther Schuller. In New York City Montgomery recorded A Dynamic New Sound, the Wes Montgomery Trio, his first album as a leader after twenty years as a musician. In 1960, he recorded The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery with Tommy Flanagan, Percy Heath, and Albert Heath.[3]
Montgomery in 1965
He joined his brothers in California to perform as the Montgomery Brothers for the Monterey Jazz Festival. The Mastersounds had broken up, and Buddy and Monk had signed with Fantasy and recorded (with Wes) The Montgomery Brothers, followed by Groove Yard. Montgomery recorded another album as a leader, So Much Guitar, then while visiting his brothers had a chance to perform with John Coltrane's group in San Francisco. In 1961, work was getting harder to find. A tour in Canada led to the album The Montgomery Brothers in Canada, then the band broke up. Montgomery returned to Indianapolis to work in his trio with Rhyne. Keepnews sent him back to California to record a live album with Johnny Griffin, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. Their performance became the album Full House. This was followed by Fusion! (1963), his first instrumental pop album.[3]
After two more organ trio jazz sessions for Riverside Records in 1963 (Boss Guitar and Portrait of Wes), Montgomery left the label for Verve Records. At Verve, Montgomery began working with producer Creed Taylor, who produced Montgomery for the rest of the guitarist's life. His first Verve release, Movin' Wes (1964), was an instrumental pop album arranged by Johnny Pate. It quickly sold more than 100,000 copies and repositioned Montgomery within the recording industry as a crossover artist capable of significant LP sales. At Verve, Montgomery released his last two small-group jazz albums (a 1965 collaboration with Wynton Kelly, and a 1966 collaboration with organist Jimmy Smith), but his main focus was recording contemporary pop hits as instrumentals. Montgomery had notable success with his versions of "California Dreamin'", "Tequila", and "Goin' Out of My Head". After moving to A&M, Montgomery had his biggest radio hit, a version of "Windy", a pop song originally recorded by The Association. Of the ten Wes Montgomery albums that Taylor produced while Montgomery was alive (all recorded for Verve and A&M Records), eight were aimed at the pop market. The success of these albums led to invitations for Montgomery to perform on major U.S. television shows including The Hollywood Palace and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Death
Montgomery died of a heart attack on June 15, 1968, while at home in Indianapolis. He was 45 years old.[4]
Montgomery in 1967
Technique
According to jazz guitar educator Wolf Marshall, Montgomery often approached solos in a three-tiered manner: he would begin the progression with single note lines, derived from scales or modes; after a fitting number of sequences, he would play octaves for a few more sequences, finally culminating with block chords. He used mostly superimposed triads and arpeggios as the main source for his soloing ideas and sounds.[1]
Instead of using a guitar pick, Montgomery plucked the strings with the fleshy part of his thumb, using down strokes for single notes and a combination of up strokes and down strokes for chords and octaves. He developed this technique not for technical reasons but for the benefit of his neighbors and not waking his children. He wanted to still play through am amplifier so he developed his thumb picking style. He worked long hours as a machinist before his music career began and practiced late at night. To keep everyone happy, he played quietly by using his thumb.[5]. His style smoothly incorporated the guitar into jazz and was studied by many.
Jazz guitarist Bobby Broom said that on A Dynamic New Sound in 1959, Montgomery "introduced a brand new approach to playing the guitar... The octave technique... and his chord melody and chord soloing playing still is today unmatched".[12] Broom modeled his guitar-organ trio after Montgomery's.[13]
Lee Ritenour recorded a tribute album in 1993, Wes Bound, that contained Montgomery covers and some originals by Ritenour. While the production and arrangements are typical for the time, he played the whole album in Montgomery style on a Gibson L-5 model.
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom.
Percy Heath was an American jazz bassist, brother of saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath played with the Modern Jazz Quartet throughout their long history and also worked with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery, and Thelonious Monk.
John Arnold Griffin III was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Nicknamed "the Little Giant" for his short stature and forceful playing, Griffin's career began in the mid-1940s and continued until the month of his death. A pioneering figure in hard bop, Griffin recorded prolifically as a bandleader in addition to stints with pianist Thelonious Monk, drummer Art Blakey, in partnership with fellow tenor Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and as a member of the Kenny Clarke/Francy Boland Big Band after he moved to Europe in the 1960s. In 1995, Griffin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.
Riverside Records was an American jazz record company and label. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer, Jr, under his firm Bill Grauer Productions in 1953, the label played an important role in the jazz record industry for a decade. Riverside headquarters were located in New York City, at 553 West 51st Street.
Wilbur James "Jimmy" Cobb was an American jazz drummer. He was part of Miles Davis's First Great Sextet. At the time of his death, he had been the band's last surviving member for nearly thirty years. He was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship in 2009.
Gene Harris was an American jazz pianist known for his warm sound and blues and gospel infused style that is known as soul jazz.
The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery is an album by the American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery. Most of its tracks exemplify two of Montgomery's distinguishing techniques: "thumb picking" and the use of octaves.
The Wes Montgomery Trio is an album by the American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, released in 1959. The track "Missile Blues" is named after the club in Indianapolis where Montgomery played before moving to New York City to record for Riverside. At this club, he met Riverside's record producer Orrin Keepnews. The album was reissued on the Original Jazz Classics label.
Orrin Keepnews was an American jazz writer and record producer known for founding Riverside Records and Milestone Records, for freelance work, and for his work at other labels.
Melvin Rhyne, was a jazz organist best known for his work with Wes Montgomery.
William Howard "Monk" Montgomery was an American jazz bassist. He was a pioneer of the electric bass guitar and possibly the first to be recorded playing the instrument when he participated in a 1953 session released on The Art Farmer Septet. He was the brother of jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery and vibraphonist Buddy Montgomery.
Charles "Buddy" Montgomery was an American jazz vibraphonist and pianist. He was the younger brother of Wes and Monk Montgomery, a guitarist and bassist respectively.
Landmark Records was an American jazz record company and label founded in 1985 by Orrin Keepnews. Landmark's releases included music by Donald Byrd, Jack DeJohnette, Jimmy Heath, Vincent Herring, Bobby Hutcherson, Mulgrew Miller, Buddy Montgomery, and reissues of Cannonball Adderley.
The Montgomery Brothers were a jazz trio consisting of the brothers Wes Montgomery, Buddy Montgomery and Monk Montgomery.
Cannonball Adderley and the Poll-Winners is an album by jazz saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley released on the Riverside label, featuring performances by Adderley with Wes Montgomery, Ray Brown, Victor Feldman, and Louis Hayes.
The Complete Riverside Recordings is a box set of American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery's early recordings on the Riverside label. It is a twelve-CD box set and was released in 1992. It contains 157 songs and includes 15 previously unissued performances, six re-edited versions of previously issued numbers and 29 alternate takes. The extensive liner notes by producer Orrin Keepnews and Jim Ferguson, session notes, and photographs. Keepnews and Ferguson received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Album Notes.
Portrait of Wes is an album by the American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, released in 1966.
Guitar on the Go is an album by American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery that released in 1966. It includes tracks recorded in 1959 and October and November 1963. The album was Montgomery's last for Riverside before signing with Verve.
Fingerpickin' is an album by the American jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery.
This is the discography for American jazz musician Wes Montgomery.
↑ Yanow, Scott (2013). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Backbeat Books. p.140. ISBN978-1-61713-023-6.
1 2 3 4 David Leander Williams (4 February 2014). Indianapolis Jazz: The Masters, Legends and Legacy of Indiana Avenue. Arcadia Publishing Incorporated. p.80. ISBN978-1-62584-934-2.
1 2 "Bury Award Winning Artist Wes Montgomery". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company: 56. 4 July 1968. ISSN0021-5996.
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