Wes Montgomery

John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery was an African-American jazz guitarist. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, part of a musical family including his brothers, Monk (string bass, electric bass) and Buddy (vibraphone, piano). He died of a heart attack on June 15, 1968. He is also the grandfather of ' star Anthony Montgomery.

Technique and gear

Montgomery started learning guitar only in his late teens, listening obsessively to recordings of his idol, Charlie Christian. Within a relatively short period of time, he could play Christian solos verbatim.

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Montgomery was not skilled at reading music, but he had an instinctive knowledge of jazz harmony and an incredible command of the fretboard. Along with the use of octaves for which he is widely known, Montgomery was also an excellent single-line player, and was very influential in the use of block chords in his solos.

Related Topics:
Harmony - Block chords

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Montgomery employed an unorthodox guitar technique; he did not use a pick. Rather, he 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 to "Ultimate Wes Montgomery" CD, 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."

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He generally played a Gibson guitar, usually an L-5CES. In his later years he played one of two guitars that Gibson custom made for him.

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In his early years, Montgomery had a tube amp, often a Fender. In his later years he played a solid-state Standel.

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