Wes Montgomery

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WesMontgomery

WesMontgomery,1965

Backgroundinformation

Birthname JohnLeslieMontgomery

Born March6,1923

Indianapolis,Indiana,UnitedStates

Died June15,1968(aged45)

Indianapolis,Indiana,UnitedStates

Genres Jazz,souljazz,crossoverjazz,mainstreamjazz,hard

bop

Occupation(s) Musician,composer

Instruments Guitar,bassguitar

Labels PacificJazz,Riverside,Verve,A&M
 Associatedacts MontgomeryBrothers,LionelHampton,Paul

Chambers,FreddieHubbard,Cannonball

Adderley,HaroldLand,NatAdderley,Jimmy

Smith,DonSebesky,JimmyJones,Milt

Jackson,WyntonKelly,JimmyCobb,Percy

Heath,TommyFlanagan

Website www.wesmontgomery.com

Notableinstruments

GibsonL5CES

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 June 15, 1968)[1] was an American jazz guitarist. He is
widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django
Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others. Montgomery was known for an unusual
technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb which granted him a distinctive sound.

He often worked with organist Jimmy Smith, and with his brothers Buddy (piano and vibes) and Monk (bass
guitar). His recordings up to 1965 were generally oriented towards hard bop, soul jazz and post bop, while
circa 1965 he began recording more pop-oriented instrumental albums that featured less improvisation but
found mainstream success and could be classified as crossover jazz or early smooth jazz.

Contents
[hide]

1Biography

2Recording career

3Death

4Influence

5Technique

6Awards and accolades

7Discography

o 7.1Riverside (19581964)

o 7.2Verve (19641966)
 o 7.3A&M (19671968)

o 7.4As sideman

8References

9External links

Biography[edit]
Montgomery was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. According to NPR Jazz Profiles "The Life and Music Of Wes
Montgomery", the nickname "Wes" was a child's abbreviation of his middle name, Leslie.[2] He came from a
musical family; his brothers, Monk (double bass and electric bass) and Buddy (vibraphone and piano), were
jazz performers. The brothers released a number of albums together as the Montgomery Brothers. Although
he was not skilled at reading music, he could learn complex melodies and riffs by ear. Montgomery started
learning the six-string guitar at the relatively late age of 20 by listening to and learning the recordings of his
idol, guitarist Charlie Christian; however, he had played a four string tenor guitar since age twelve. He was
known for his ability to play Christian's solos note for note and was hired by Lionel Hampton for this ability.[1]

Montgomery toured with Lionel Hampton early in his career; however, the combined stress of touring and
being away from family took him back home to Indianapolis. To support his family of eight, Montgomery
worked in a factory from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, then performed in local clubs from 9:00 pm to 2:00
am. Cannonball Adderley heard Montgomery in an Indianapolis club and was floored. The next morning, he
called record producer Orrin Keepnews, who signed Montgomery to a recording contract with Riverside
Records. Adderley later recorded with Montgomery on his Pollwinners album. Montgomery recorded with his
brothers and various other group members, including the Wynton Kelly Trio which previously backed
up Miles Davis.

Following the early work of swing / pre-bop guitarist Christian and gypsy-jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt,
Wes joined Tal Farlow, Johnny Smith, Jimmy Raney, and Barney Kessell to put guitar on the map as a
bebop / post-bop instrument. While these men generally curtailed their own output in the 1960s,
Montgomery recorded prolifically during this period, lending guitar to the same tunes contemporaries such
as John Coltrane and Miles Davis were recording.

John Coltrane asked Montgomery to join his band after a jam session, but Montgomery continued to lead his
own band. Boss Guitar seems to refer to his status as a guitar-playing bandleader. He also made
contributions to recordings by Jimmy Smith. Jazz purists relish Montgomery's recordings up through 1965,
and sometimes complain that he abandoned hard-bop for pop jazz toward the end of his career, although it
is arguable that he gained a wider audience for his earlier work with his soft jazz from 1965 to 1968. During
this late period he occasionally turned out original material alongside jazzy orchestral arrangements of pop
songs. In sum, this late period earned him considerable wealth and created a platform for a new audience to
hear his earlier recordings.

To many, Montgomery's playing defines jazz guitar and the sound that students try to emulate. Jazz
guitarist Bobby Broom, in a video history of Montgomery's impact on musicians and guitarists in Jazz, notes:

Much has been made of the year 1959 in the history of Jazz music. It's been called its most prolific year. It's
been called the year Jazz died... One figure that is grossly ignored... is the iconic Wes Montgomery, the Jazz
guitarist from Indianapolis who emerged in 1959 with his first trio record... The name of the record was "A
Dynamic New Sound." It ushered in a figure that became one of the most celebrated, if not the most
celebrated, on the instrument in Jazz music. Wes introduced a brand new approach to playing the guitar.
Techniques that were really unexplored before him. The octave technique... and his chord melody and chord
soloing playing still is today unmatched, and definitely a revelation to Jazz guitar playing.[3]

Montgomery is the grandfather of actor Anthony Montgomery.[1][4]

Recording career[edit]
Montgomery toured with vibraphonist Lionel Hampton's orchestra from July 1948 to January 1950, and can
be heard on recordings from this period. Montgomery then returned to Indianapolis and did not record again
until December 1957 (save for one session in 1955), when he took part in a session that included his
brothers Monk and Buddy, as well as trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who made his recording debut with
Montgomery. Most of the recordings made by Montgomery and his brothers from 1957 to 1959 were
released on the Pacific Jazz label.[1]

From 1959 Montgomery was signed to the Riverside Records label, and remained there until late 1963, just
before the company went bankrupt. The recordings made during this period are widely considered by fans
and jazz historians to be Montgomery's best and most influential. Two sessions in January 1960 yielded The
Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, which was recorded as a quartet with pianist Tommy Flanagan,
bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath. The album featured two of Montgomery's most
well-known compositions, "Four on Six" and "West Coast Blues".

Almost all of Montgomery's output on Riverside featured the guitarist in a small group setting, usually a trio
(and always with his organist from his Indianapolis days, Melvin Rhyne), a quartet, or a quintet, playing a
mixture of hard-swinging uptempo jazz numbers and quiet ballads. The lone exception, Fusion, telegraphed
his post-Riverside career: it was his first recording with a string ensemble. One of the more memorable sets
involved a co-leadership collaboration with vibraphone virtuoso and Modern Jazz Quartet mainstay Milt
Jackson, whom producer Orrin Keepnews has said insisted on a collaboration with Montgomery as a
condition for signing a solo recording deal with Riverside.

In 1964 Montgomery moved to Verve Records for two years. His stay at Verve yielded a number of albums
where he was featured with an orchestrabrass-dominated (Movin' Wes), string-oriented (Bumpin', Tequila),
or a mix of both (Goin' Out of My Head, California Dreaming).[1]

Montgomery never abandoned jazz entirely in the Verve years, whether with a few selections on most of the
Verve albums, or by such sets as 1965's Smokin' at the Half Note, showcasing two appearances at the New
York City club with the Wynton Kelly Trio, or a pair of albums that he made with jazz organist Jimmy
Smith, Jimmy & Wes: The Dynamic Duo and Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes. He continued to play
outstanding live jazz guitar, as evidenced by surviving audio and video recordings from his 1965 tour of
Europe.

As a considered founder of the smooth jazz school, the Verve album Bumpin' (1965) represents a model
from which many modern recordings are derived: as the liner notes to the CD remaster issue note, after
being unable to produce the desired results by the guitarist and orchestra playing together, arranger Don
Sebesky suggested Montgomery record the chosen music with his chosen small group, after which Sebesky
would write the orchestral charts based on what Montgomery's group had produced. The orchestral parts
were then recorded separately from Montgomery.

By the time Montgomery released his first album for A&M Records, he had seemingly abandoned jazz
entirely for the more lucrative pop market, though as in his Verve period he played his customary jazz in
small group settings in live appearances. The three albums released during his A&M period (196768),
under longtime jazz producer Creed Taylor (Bethlehem Records, ABC-Paramount Records, Verve
Records, CTI Records), feature Sebesky's orchestral arrangements of famous pop songs ("I Say a Little
Prayer", "Windy", "A Day in the Life", "Eleanor Rigby", etc.) with Montgomery using guitar octave technique
to recite the melody. The A&M recordings feature all-star rhythm sections, including Herbie Hancock on
piano, Hank Jones on harpsichord and piano, Ron Carter on bass, Grady Tate on drums, and Ray
Barretto on percussion. Hubert Laws also appears on Down Here on the Ground (1968), the first of the A&M
albums, playing flute and oboe. These were the most commercially successful records of his career,
although AllMusic Guide's Michael G. Nastos wrote of Down Here on the Ground:

Much to either the delight or chagrin of urban or traditional jazz fans, the music changed, and Montgomery
was in the middle, though his delightful playing was essentially unchanged. ... In many real and important
ways, this is the beginning of the end for Montgomery as a jazz artist, and the inception of bachelor pad
lounge/mood music that only lasted for a brief time. ... It does fall in that category of recordings where the
musicians chose to produce, rather than create their personal brand of jazz, and is at the very least an
historical footnote.

Wes and younger brother Buddy, along with Richard Crabtree and Benny Barth, formed "The
Mastersounds", and recorded "Jazz Showcase Introducing The Mastersounds" and a jazz version of "The
King and I", both released by World Pacific Records. They first played together at Seattle, particularly
working up the set for "The King and I", at a club called Dave's Fifth Avenue. The composers were so
impressed by the jazz version of "The King & I" that they pre-released the score of "Flower Drum Song" to
the quartet to allow simultaneous release with the soundtrack album.

Resonance Records began a series of live albums from archival recordings in 2016 with the 1959
performance One Night in Indy.

Death[edit]
On the morning of June 15, 1968, while at home in Indianapolis, Indiana, Montgomery awoke and remarked
to his wife that he "didn't feel very well." He soon collapsed, dying of a heart attack within minutes. 45 years
old at the time of his death, Montgomery had just returned