Wes Montgomery
Hands fresh from a factory shift swept the strings with the thumb instead of a pick, and that rounded tone changed the way jazz guitar speaks.
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
Collaborators ⏳🌊
- FamilyMonk Montgomery
The older brother who bought him his first guitar, he became a pioneer of the electric bass and recorded with his younger brother many times.
- InfluenceCharlie Christian
They never met, but he learned the guitar by copying his recordings note by note.
- ColleagueLionel Hampton
From 1948, for about two years, he toured the country in his band and gained experience on big stages.
- PatronageCannonball Adderley
Hearing him play in Indianapolis in 1959, he told Riverside about him and opened the way to his New York debut.
- PatronageOrrin Keepnews
As Riverside's producer, he made “The Incredible Jazz Guitar” and “Full House”.
- PatronageCreed Taylor
At Verve and A&M he wrapped him in orchestral arrangements and pop songs, leading him to popular success.
I. Brothers of Indianapolis · 1923–1943 (age 0–20)
(Birth) He was born in March 1923 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His given name was John Leslie Montgomery, and the nickname Wes came from his middle name, Leslie. His parents separated early, and the brothers are said to have lived for a time with their father in Columbus, Ohio, but little is known about the parents' lives. (Brothers) He had an older brother, Monk (born William Howard, 1921), and a younger brother, Buddy (born Charles, 1930). Monk would later become one of the first players to use the electric bass guitar in a jazz band, and Buddy played vibraphone and piano. All three brothers learned music by ear, with almost no formal training. (Tenor guitar) When Wes was about twelve, Monk bought him a four-string tenor guitar. He did not stay with the instrument long; it was around nineteen that he took up the six-string guitar in earnest. (Christian) The spark was the recordings of Charlie Christian, who drew long, horn-like lines from the electric guitar in Benny Goodman's band. He is said to have bought an electric guitar and an amplifier right after hearing “Solo Flight.” Christian died in 1942 at twenty-five, and Wes, taking the records he left behind as his teacher, learned the solos by ear, note by note. This way of learning from records rather than sheet music became his method for life. (Marriage) In 1943, at twenty, he married Serene Miller. The couple had seven children. That a young man who could not read a single page of music became the head of a household so early would be the greatest factor in deciding where, and how much, he would play.
II. The thumb · 1943–1950 (age 20–27)
(Thumb) Instead of a pick, he struck the strings with the flesh of his right thumb. A widely told story holds that the habit came from practicing quietly at night while his family and neighbors slept, though he also recalled that he simply disliked the sound of a pick. Either way, the rounded pad of the thumb took the edge off the steel strings and produced a thick, soft tone. (Clubs) Having memorized Christian's solos whole, he reportedly landed work playing them in hometown clubs just over 1 year after picking up the guitar. The Indiana Avenue district, where Black-owned shops and clubs clustered, was his school. In a city where segregation was a plain fact, the stages open to Black musicians were mostly on that street. (Hampton) In 1948 he joined the band of vibraphonist and bandleader Lionel Hampton and toured the United States for about 2 years. The band was big and flashy, but there was little room for the guitar, and almost none of his solos from this period survive on record. Instead, night after night, he learned in his body the breathing of a large ensemble and how to work an audience. A few years later his brother Monk would play electric bass in the same band. (Homecoming) In 1950 he left the band and returned to Indianapolis. He is said to have found it hard to bear being away from his family on the road. Again and again he chose staying close to home over chances on bigger stages, and that choice kept him a local musician for nearly 10 years.
III. Factory by day, club by night · 1950–1959 (age 27–36)
(Shifts) In the 1950s his day was split in two. By day he worked at places such as a radio-parts factory; by night he took the club stage. Accounts tell of him working at the factory from 7 in the morning into the afternoon, then playing at one club from 9 at night until 2 a.m., and after that at another club that stayed open until dawn. With seven children to feed, he could let go of neither. (The brothers' band) Meanwhile Monk and Buddy were making a name out West with a group called the Mastersounds. In 1957 Wes recorded with his brothers for the West Coast label Pacific Jazz under the name the Montgomery Brothers. These records drew little attention, but they show that his thumb-and-octave technique was already in place. (Octaves) Octave playing means doubling the same note eight scale steps apart and striking both at once. It is demanding, because the fingers must move quickly while spread wide. He built his solos on a 3-stage framework: opening with single-note lines, adding weight with octaves, and finally closing by pushing the melody forward in chordal masses (block chords). Many critics believe that club life, with its long sets played all night before the same customers, cultivated this step-by-step architecture. (Cannonball) In 1959 the alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, passing through Indianapolis, heard him play and told Orrin Keepnews, a producer at Riverside Records. Keepnews soon signed him. At thirty-six, a local musician shuttling between factory and club was crossing the threshold of New York.
IV. Riverside · 1959–1963 (age 36–40)
(Debut) In the fall of 1959 he recorded a trio album with organist Melvin Rhyne and drummer Paul Parker. Featuring Thelonious Monk's “'Round Midnight” and Duke Ellington's “Satin Doll,” the album carried the organ-trio lineup he played every night in his hometown clubs straight into the studio. (Incredible) In January 1960, in New York, he recorded “The Incredible Jazz Guitar” with pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Albert Heath. Sonny Rollins's “Airegin” was cut at the same sessions. The album won him the new-star award in the DownBeat critics poll and brought him attention almost overnight. But fame did not mean comfort, and rather than settle in New York he moved between his hometown and the West Coast, playing with his brothers as well. (Coltrane) In 1961 he shared the stage several times with John Coltrane's group. Coltrane is said to have invited him to join, but he chose to lead a group of his own. That same year he recorded “Bags Meets Wes” with vibraphonist Milt Jackson; his peers recognized him before the critics did. (Full House) In June 1962, at a coffeehouse in Berkeley, California, he recorded live with tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin and with Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb, the rhythm section of Miles Davis's band. This is “Full House,” named for his own tune in triple meter (a jazz waltz). It is counted as the record on which his improvising, stretching across pass after pass through the form (choruses), unfolds most freely. In 1963 he also released an album with string arrangements, and the direction of his later years was already sprouting there.
The first album to capture in full the technique he had honed for more than a decade between factory and club, now meeting a first-rate New York rhythm section.
- His original “Four on Six” is said to derive from the chord changes of Gershwin's “Summertime.” Over a firm minor-key vamp you can hear his solo build in three stages: single notes, octaves (the same note doubled eight steps apart), and block chords (the melody played in chordal masses).
- In Sonny Rollins's “Airegin,” listen for the passages where, even at a fast tempo, he spins long, unbroken lines with nothing but his thumb, no pick.
- “West Coast Blues” recasts the blues in triple meter (a jazz waltz), which gives it a distinctive, rolling, swaying pulse.
- In ballads such as “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” the round, warm tone of the thumb comes through most clearly. Tommy Flanagan's piano clears space for the guitar with short, clipped chordal accompaniment (comping).
- Recorded over two days in January 1960 in New York.
A live set that seems to carry a night at his hometown club into a small Berkeley coffeehouse, it shows how long and how freely he played onstage.
- The title track, “Full House,” is his own composition in triple meter (jazz waltz). Guitar and tenor saxophone trade solos.
- Johnny Griffin's tenor saxophone storms in fast and rough, while Wes builds calmly. The contrast between the two is the tension of this album.
- In “I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face,” the guitar alone, without accompaniment, handles melody and harmony together.
- Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb had played together as the rhythm section of Miles Davis's band, so the push and pull of leaning slightly on the back of the beat (swing) feels natural and elastic. You can also hear the air of a live date, with the sounds of the audience mixed in.
V. Verve and Creed Taylor · 1964–1966 (age 41–43)
(Collapse) At the end of 1963 Riverside's co-owner Bill Grauer died, and the following year the company went under. In 1964 he moved to Verve Records and began working with producer Creed Taylor. Taylor had a gift for wrapping jazz players in orchestral arrangements and pop repertoire and presenting them to a wider audience. (Two paths) His Verve years were documented along two paths. On one side were short tracks that sang pop melodies in octaves over big band or strings; on the other, small-group albums on which he improvised to his heart's content. “Smokin' at the Half Note,” recorded in 1965 with the Wynton Kelly Trio, is the peak of the latter. On Miles Davis's 12-bar blues “No Blues,” he piled up chorus after chorus. (Europe) In the spring of 1965 he toured Europe, playing stages in Paris, London, and elsewhere, and several television broadcasts survive. They show that the man surrounded by arrangements on record was still, onstage, an improviser who unspooled long solos. (Grammy) “Goin' Out of My Head,” made with arranger Oliver Nelson, won a Grammy, and in 1966 he recorded “The Dynamic Duo” with organist Jimmy Smith. The years of playing alongside the organ in hometown clubs had, in effect, led to a conversation with the finest organist of the day. As sales grew his earnings improved markedly, but critics' complaints about commercialization also grew louder from around this time.
In the very year he set out on the road to popularity, he left behind the high point of his small-group improvising. It is the record that best bears out the claim that the Wes of the commercial albums and the Wes onstage were two different men.
- Miles Davis's “No Blues” is a 12-bar blues. Wes's solo builds across several choruses (one complete pass through the tune's form), climbing in turn from single notes to octaves to block chords, and it is counted among the solos many guitarists transcribe and study.
- Wynton Kelly's piano spurs the soloist on with bouncing accompaniment, while Paul Chambers's bass and Jimmy Cobb's drums lay down a floor of even swing. Listen for the give-and-take (interplay) as the rhythm section pushes harder the more the solo heats up.
- In the ballad “If You Could See Me Now,” unlike the fast numbers, the phrasing stands out for the way it savors each note at length.
- Only the two tracks on side one are live from the Half Note club in New York; the three on side two were recorded in the studio with the same lineup. Pat Metheny is known to have named this album the greatest jazz guitar record.
Within the large arrangements Creed Taylor and Oliver Nelson built around him, he became less an improviser than a singer of melodies, and this album won him a Grammy.
- The original is a pop song of anguished confession from a narrator held captive by someone they cannot shake. Wes picks out that melody note by note in octaves, as if singing it.
- In Oliver Nelson's big-band arrangement, listen to how the horn sections wrap the guitar in short answering phrases (riffs).
- The tracks are short, and the improvising shrinks to a few bars. Built with radio play in mind, it set the direction of his records from then on.
Years of playing alongside the organ in hometown clubs led to a conversation with Jimmy Smith, the finest organist of the day.
- “James and Wes” is a long, stretched-out blues for a small group, with no big band. The two trade solos in turn, answering each other's phrases.
- The organ can fill the low register thickly and sustain chords at length, so the guitar's octaves rise clearly above it.
- On the other tracks, Oliver Nelson's big band drives forward with great masses of horns, and the two soloists break through the gaps.
VI. The last song · 1967–1968 (age 44–45)
(A&M) In 1967, when Creed Taylor set up a new production line under A&M Records, Wes followed him. “A Day in the Life,” made with the arranger Don Sebesky, led with a Beatles song as its title and sold enormously, becoming one of the best-selling jazz records of the year. “Down Here on the Ground” and “Road Song” followed. (Controversy) Some longtime jazz fans and critics lamented that he had abandoned improvisation. He is said to have replied, in effect, that records were for the public and that onstage he still played jazz. Indeed, his club dates from this period are said to have been filled with improvisation far longer and rougher than anything on the records. (Family man) Success that came after forty meant, above all, a stable life. A father of seven, he is said to have wanted to tour less and spend more time at home in Indianapolis. Many recall him as shy and modest, and he never bothered to hide the fact that he could not read music. The late records, on which he sings the melody plainly over the arrangements, let us hear how dearly a man who learned by ear cherished the tunes of popular song. (Death) On the morning of June 15, 1968, he died of a heart attack at his home in Indianapolis. He was forty-five, and it was not long after he had recorded his last album, “Road Song.” He was buried in the soil of his hometown, and the thumb and the octaves became the language of the next generation of guitarists, George Benson and Pat Metheny among them.
The best-selling record of his life, it is the emblem of his final years, bringing at once success, security, and the charge that he had abandoned improvisation.
- The Beatles' original is a song in which the offhand scenery of everyday life alternates with dreamlike reverie. Wes picks out the vocal melody in octaves and adds only the briefest touches of improvisation.
- Don Sebesky's arrangements for strings and horns fill the space expansively. The sound is the sleek, resonant one Creed Taylor favored.
- The choice of contemporary pop hits such as “Windy” and “Eleanor Rigby” tells you the character of this record.
- Listen closely to the few bars of ornament that slip into the brief gaps between the arrangements, and you can sense that the improviser of the stage is still in there.
Lesser-known stories
“Smokin' at the Half Note,” despite its title, is not entirely a club recording. Only the two tracks on side one were recorded at the Half Note in New York in June 1965; the side-two tracks “Unit 7,” “Four on Six,” and “What's New” were cut that September with the same players at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey. Because the original LP did not make this clear, the whole album was long taken for a live recording, until later reissues and discographical research set the record straight. The turn toward string arrangements aimed at a mass audience is usually credited to Creed Taylor, but the first step came at Riverside. In 1963 Orrin Keepnews produced “Fusion!”, with string arrangements by Jimmy Jones. Because Riverside soon collapsed and the Verve years proved so successful, this record was left in the shadows. The story that Cannonball Adderley discovered him is dramatic, but it is not the whole story. As early as 1957 he had already recorded with his brothers for Pacific Jazz on the West Coast. Those recordings barely sold and were forgotten, and the tale of an unknown factory worker discovered overnight was simply more appealing, so the discovery story hardened into accepted fact.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Octave playing
(Meaning) Octave comes from the Latin octavus ('eighth'). Start on do and climb one note at a time, and on the eighth step you reach a higher do again; the distance between these two notes is an octave. (In jazz) A technique of striking two notes of the same name an octave apart on the guitar at the same time. The sound is fatter and clearer than a single note, so the melody steps forward as if singing. Wes Montgomery used it freely even in fast improvisation and made it his signature. It is like a man and a woman singing the same song together: their pitches differ, yet they sound like one tune — here, a single guitar sounds both voices at once.
Block chords
(In jazz) A technique of attaching a full chord to every note of the melody, playing many notes at once as a single mass (a block) as the line moves along. It sounds far thicker and more forceful than single notes, so Wes Montgomery saved it for the final climactic stage of his solos. Picture someone singing alone until, on the last refrain, the whole class joins in with harmony. (Elsewhere) In everyday use, a block is a toy building piece or a section of a city.
Chorus
(Meaning) In ancient Greek theater, the group that sang and danced together was called the choros, and the main section of a popular song that everyone sings along to came to be called the chorus as well. (In jazz) One complete pass through a tune's form, from beginning to end, is called a chorus. In a 12-bar blues, for instance, the 12 bars make one chorus. A soloist keeps improvising through the same form round after round, and the length of a solo is counted in choruses, the way you count laps around a track. (Elsewhere) In everyday use it usually means choral singing or a choir.
12-bar blues
(Meaning) In English, blue also means melancholy, and so the Black folk songs that sang of sorrow and grief came to be called the blues. (In jazz) A form in which a fixed sequence of chords repeats in 12-bar units. Because it is short and simple, even musicians meeting for the first time can play it together straight away, making it one of the most widely used frameworks in jazz. It is like a jump-rope rhyme: the beat and the order are set, so anyone can jump in midway and show off their own moves.
Jazz waltz
(In jazz) Music that lays jazz swing and improvisation over triple meter, counting each bar in three beats, oom-pah-pah, like the dance waltz. Because jazz is usually counted in four, a piece in three has a distinctive round, swaying, circling feel. “Full House” and “West Coast Blues” are examples. Think of counting the sway of a swing, forward and back again, in threes.
Organ trio
(Meaning) Trio is Italian for a group of three together. (In jazz) A lineup of three players: electric organ, guitar (or saxophone), and drums. Because the organist covers the bass line with the foot pedals or left hand, the sound is full even without a bassist. It was hugely popular in clubs in Black neighborhoods across America in the 1950s and '60s, and Wes Montgomery played in this format in his hometown. It is like a three-player team game in which one person handles both offense and defense, so there are no gaps despite the small roster.
Rhythm section
(Meaning) Rhythm comes from the Greek rhythmos ('flow, regular movement'). (In jazz) The group of instruments, such as piano, bass, and drums, that lays down the foundation of beat and harmony. They pave the way for the soloist to improvise freely, and when the solo heats up they push along with it, trading ideas in conversation. It is like a relay race: the runner can go all out only because others, though not out in front, have built the track and kept the pace.