Wes Montgomery: The Beginnings

 I started playing Jazz Guitar in the 1970s as the result of an accident. I had subscribed to the Columbia Record Club, a mail-order club that would send you an LP record every month either based on your selection or, if you forgot to select something for that month, whatever they choose to send. I had been selecting rock and blues records. One month, I forgot to make a selection and received The Wes Montgomery Trio. Rather than send the record back, I decided to listen to it and was knocked out by Wes' block chord ballad playing on Too Late Now (you can hear Wes playing it here).

I had never heard guitar playing with harmonized block chords and decided that's what I wanted to do. I went down to Patti Music in Madison, WI and bought a black Fender Stratocaster (wish I still had it) and starting teaching myself chord playing. I didn't get very far. I started asking around about guitar teachers and everyone keep saying "You've got to take lessons from Roy Plumb, if you can get in." He was teaching upstairs at Patti Music.

In the upcoming posts I'll go into more detail about my initial attempts to learn jazz guitar and then on to my lessons with Roy Plumb. But first, some important background on Wes Montgomery.



The videos in this blog were taken from the "NPR Jazz Profiles the Life and Music of Wes Montogomery". Part 1 (above) shows Wes playing an octave solo narrated by Nancy Wilson. Emily Remler (and many others) copied the solos. Wes never learned to read music but he knew what he was doing. Wes learned by copying Charlie Christian solos and played them out note for note (not easy). I met Buddy Montgomery (one of Wes' brothers, also an accomplished jazz musician and a piano player) in a Milwaukee Jazz club and was introduced by a friend who was taking lessons from Buddy (this was in the 1970's in an all-Black club on the near East side of Milwaukee and I was not getting a very warm reception until Buddy waved everyone off). Buddy was the sweetest Jazz musician I have ever met. When he heard that I played guitar he said "Come on down, bring your guitar and play a set with me." To have that offer again forty years later!



Wes was self taught, at home and on the bandstand with Lionel Hampton in 1948 (I imagine that Wes picked up his block chord solo approach from Lionel Hampton's horn section). Returning to Indianapolis he formed a group with Mel Rhyne. Mel Rhyne later moved to Wisconsin, worked in Milwaukee's Rust-Belt factories and played out only occasionally (I heard him play in Madison at a club off King Street on the Square). Wes' first album as lead was The Wes Montgomery Trio (this is the album I received by accident) with  Mel Rhyne on organ and Paul Parker on drums.



Wes's trademark playing guitar with the thumb was an accident (his wife wanted him to practice more quietly at night and his thumb was double-jointed) and octave playing was a result (and consequence) of tuning (Wes' guitar was always in perfect tune). As a result of learning Charlie Christian single-note solos, copying the Lionel Hampton horn section and experimenting with tuning his guitar in octaves, Wes developed a three tier approach to solos: single notes, then octaves followed by block chords. The approach gave his solos a building intensity that kept listeners on the edge of their seats. During this period Wes started exploring pop music with  Creed Taylor and Verve Records, but their first record Movin' Wes was pure big band jazz with the song Caravan a particular standout. Their next record was  Bumpin' in 1965 and it was the beginning of Smooth Jazz. The next record, Smokin' at the Half Note stayed in the Jazz tradition and was another knock out.



The album Goin' Out My Head stayed in the pop tradition but featured a Jazz horn section with strings. The record went gold and earned Wes a Grammy in 1966. Wes was concerned about supporting his family and his wife Serene (he wrote and played a song for her on the Road Song album) told him to start playing music people would like. Wes died in 1968 (my Junior year at UW Madison) of a heart attack, certainly from working multiple jobs, late hours, little sleep and smoking! His career lasted nine years as a leader, not even a decade!

What do I take from Wes Montgomery's development as a musician: (1) jazz guitar can be learned through self study and through playing with great musicians, (2) memorizing and playing the lines of great guitarists (Charlie Christian in Wes Montgomery's case) is an essential part of learning, (3) Wes' many pop tunes are a gift to Jazz guitarists since they are great learning vehicles and the playing standards are very high with no mistake that this is a Jazz player at the peak of his career, (4) accidents are important and (4) don't smoke.

In future posts, I will try to pass on everything I have learned from studying Jazz guitar and Wes Montgomery solos over the last 40 years. Hopefully, this will be of benefit to future players.