I love the guitar. But I’m a piano/keyboard player, so I also hate the guitar. Well…that’s not true. Maybe it’s just guitarists I don’t like….but that’s not true, some of my best friends play the guitar! Actually, the truth is that I never understood people who say things like “I hate the organ” or “I hate the clarinet” or some other instrument. The simple fact of the matter is that the guitar is a very popular instrument, especially post 1964ish. And consequently there are many many guitar players. I’ll bet 1% of my personal wealth against 1% of Mitt Romney’s that virtually everyone reading this knows someone who plays the guitar. (that should pay off my student loans and then some…..)
Wes Montgomery is more than just one of the most influential guitarists in modern music. He is also one Jazz’s best improvisers. His story is also a good story about a working man who made good and of an entertainer who knew that even though he was playing Jazz, he was in this business we call show. Taken from us much too early, his last records are more reminiscent of The Spanish Flea than Giant Steps. And if those records are all you know, you are missing one of the great ones.
Please pass the orange squiggle for the Wes Montgomery Experience and may you never hear surf music again
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery, March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968, was born in Indianapolis , IN. “Wes” was apparently a child’s mispronunciation of Leslie and it stuck as a nickname. He had three brothers and a sister. His oldest brother died when Wes was 18. His sister could play the piano. His other brothers were also Jazz musicians: William Howard "Monk" Montgomery, October 10, 1921 – May 20, 1982, and Charles "Buddy" Montgomery, January 30, 1930-May 14, 2009. Monk was one the first electric bassists in jazz and Buddy was a notable pianist and vibraphonist.
Wes was a family man, an all around good guy. He was a working man who provided for 8 children. He liked playing with his brothers and they supported him as best they could. There are no stories about him being a drunk or using heroin. He died in 1968 at age 45 from a sudden heart attack.
There is a popular myth about Wes which is truthy. The myth is that Wes did not start playing the guitar until he was 20. The truth is that Wes did not start playing a 6 string guitar until he had one of his own when he was 20. However, when he 12, Monk bought him a 4 string tenor guitar. Wes was able to do a lot of preliminary learning on the 4 string, he was not a beginner at 20. Wes could not read or write music nor was he a particularly intellectual man. He couldn’t really explain what he was doing, he just knew it sounded good and sounded right. Wes was deeply influenced by the early great guitarist, Charlie Christian, July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942.
In fact, he could play many Christian solos note for note. This ability landed him a gig performing and recording with Lionel Hampton from 1948-1950.
After leaving the band, he returned to Indianapolis and continued to play with his brothers as well as working a 9-5 to support his family.
There’s a minor recording session from 1955. There are also stories of Wes in Indy and all the big names, like Cannonball and Count Basie, stopping into the organ trio gigs Wes was doing whenever they were in town. Wes’ recording career started relatively late, but this does not mean he was not playing.
The recordings really start in 1957. The first major session is released as “The Montgomery Brothers and 5 others” and just happens to be the very first recording date for Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard.
At this point, the Montgomery Brothers record a few albums for the Pacific Jazz label from 1957-1959. In 1958, Wes signed to Riverside records and that’s when the music really takes off.
1958 sees “Far West”
1959 has “The Wes Montgomery trio” which features the organ trio from Indy: Melvin Rhyne, October 12, 1936 – March 5, 2013, on the Hammond and Paul Parker on Drums.
1960 includes a session with Cannonball
“Cannonball Adderly and the Poll Winners”
The thing with Wes is that his approach to soloing was very much like a horn player’s. On top of that, he did not use a pick and used his thumb instead, helping to give him his distinctive tone. And of course there was his technique of playing melodies in octaves.
“The incredible guitar of Wes Montgomery”
“Move Along”
And 1960 also saw recordings with Harold Land and Nat Adderly
1961 has some records that I know inside and out. One thing aspiring jazz musicians tend to do is to hang out and listen to records. The “Hang” is actually rather important for learning and networking. For me personally, one of the best “hangs” my friends and I had back in 1990 was in the house I grew up while it was up for sale after my parents had remarried and moved out. We would go to my basement (I wasn’t going to mess up the main floors or mom would kill me), experiment with various ways to imbibe a perfectly natural plant that grows much like a weed, and listen to music for hours on end. One tune my guitar player friends always insisted on hearing was this next one from 1961’s “So Much Guitar”
Sometimes we’ld dig this one from “Bags meets Wes”
I’ve always been fond of this one: “George Shearing and the Montgomery Brothers”
That’s the great percusionist Armando Peraza on Bongos, May 30, 1924 – April 14, 2014. Later in Armando’s life he would record and perform with Carlos Santana….on and off from 1972 until 1990.
I think this record also really foreshadows the commerciality to come. Very clear melodies, swinging grooves, not exactly the most challenging improvisations.
Wes also performs at least once with John Coltrane in 1961. I cant find youtube clips for it. Apparently Coltrane asked him to join the band, but Wes declined.
1962 sees his first recordings with Wynton Kelly
1963 sees more with Melvin Rhyne
And then things start to take an intellectually, though not particularly musically, interesting turn. The first one is Jazzier than others to come…..
There is 1965’s Bumpin’, which hit #118 on the Billboard top 200
I’ve said a few times that Wes was a working man and an entertainer. By many accounts, Wes maintained the perspective that he was a musician hired to entertain people. Jazz musicians can get a bad rap for trying to play primarily for themselves. There are times and places where that is completely appropriate. But if you need to pay the rent and the electric bill from doing low paying gigs, you can’t be a prima donna getting aggravated that no one cheered when you did that fancy giant steps substitution on a ii-V change at the Italian Restaurant. You need to show up on time with the appearance of being sober and play your 45-60 minute sets and take breaks that don’t last too long and make the crowd happy. Stars don’t necessarily need to do this. People who can’t play without electricity don’t ever deal with this while they program their computers and claim to be musicians. Working guitarists with 8 children do.
But even while Wes is releasing commercially friendly records…and practically inventing smooth jazz years before Chuck Mangione’s Feels So Good…he was also making recordings of substance. And that brings us back to Wynton Kelly and the truth that all roads in Jazz lead back to Miles and/or Art Blakey.
Remember these guys? Wynton Kelly and some slouch named Paul Chambers, as well as Art Taylor? That’s Miles Davis’ rhythm section from 1959-1963
1965 sees a hugely popular (among musicians) record called “Smoking at the half note with the Wynton Kelly Trio”
There’s really only one other Jazz musician I can think off who has successfully made many commercially viable jazz recordings while still from time to time making very serious and very deep jazz recordings: Pat Metheney.
This record is probably one the Jazz albums I have listened to the most. Like I said, some of my best friends are guitar players and, hands down, this is a great record for Jazz guitar. I have done gigs with many guitar players. I have had weekends where I had four gigs with four different guitar players. I love playing with a guitar player who wants to play in this style. I greatly enjoy trying to do my best “Wynton Kelly” with a guitar player trying his best to sound like Wes.
1966 is not all commercial. There are a few records with Jimmy Smith
But things do get commercial. The improvisation becomes limited. The focus is on the song melodies. The band is expanded to include more instrumentation, but the arrangements are unobtrusive. The tunes are popular songs of the day.
As I alluded to earlier, it’s rather reminiscent of things like The Spanish Flea
And if I was 19 or 20 listening to the Beatles or the Stones…or Hendrix or The Doors…and I heard this stuff…my reaction would not be “WOW what a great guitar player” instead it would be a bit more like “WTF is this?”
It also should be of no surprise that as his popularity grew at this point, A&M records signed Wes. The “A” in A&M is Herb Alpert.
The records sold very well, but the music is forgettable. I’ve seen critics refer to these records as a foot note to musical history. I do find something in them appealing, but unless I’m in a strange mood listening to things in private that I might not ever subject any of my friends or peers too I don’t think I’ld ever choose to listen to these recordings
It gets worse…
I’ve seen it written that the group with Wynton Kelly should have been more popular than it was. I’m not sure exactly how that could have happened unless they recorded more. But the industry tempted Wes and Wes was happy to earn the money. He was an entertainer. I’ve read that Wynton was steered towards more “Soul Jazz,” but I don’t know the later Wynton recordings at all. His 1964 recording “Little Tracey” made it to #38 on the R&B charts, I can’t find it on youtube. PC died in 69 and the trio broke up. Kelly died in 1971. He was an epileptic and died of a seizure. For all intents and purposes, he was completely broke at the time of his death.
But this is a diary about Wes. And Wes is so very influential: Pat Martino, George Benson, Pat Metheney, they would all tell you how much they love Wes. And if you don’t hear Wes in this, you’re ears don’t work well.
Wes suffered a heart attack in 1968 and died at age 45. His body of work is, to me, incomplete. We end on schmaltz and I doubt we would have had only schmaltz had he continued. Imagine, if you would, a 1970 with Jimi Hendrix and Wes. Imagine what Wes might have done after being really exposed to Hendrix. In 1971, Art Blakey led a tour with Dizzy and Thelonious Monk. Might Wes have been a part of that? Might Wes had made fusion recordings in the 70s? I know folks who say fusion may have gone differently if Lee Morgan had lived (if you’ve been reading my diaries, you may have picked up on the fact that I took lessons with Harold Mabern. Harold was the pianist the night Lee Morgan was shot and killed on stage), how would things be if Wes lived? Return to Forever with Wes Montgomery? Or even the schmaltz of Wes with Chuck Mangione? I have no doubt that we missed out on a Wes/Bill Evans collaboration.
It’s a shame. But most of what we have is great.
Thanks again everyone for listening. And for all the great comments every week! If you’re new to these jazz diaries I’ve been doing, I post them every Sunday night. I’m not sure what to address next week, I could continue with Blakey or Miles. Ill do some Afro-Cuban stuff week after next (NYC Puerto Rican day parade…I like to work with the theme of day if I can). I don’t want to do any fusion until I get my Miles narrative to Bitches Brew. Suggestions?
As always, please support your local jazz musicians and all local live music.