Enter the Wes Montgomery International Jazz Guitar Competition

Resonance Records, Inaba Music and the Wes Montgomery Estate are holding a competition in New York City at the Merkin Concert Hall on October 10. Although the purpose of the contest is to find "this generation's next great jazz guitarist" anyone ages 14-33 can enter. The web site (here) provides all the details. Although the competition is stiff (Graham Dechter has already produced three great submissions, one of them above and another below), it's a great opportunity for students to get into the mix and provides a great learning opportunity. Also, anyone can vote on each submission (see the "Vote Now" button above).

Here are the details:

• Contestants must between the ages of 14 and 33.
• Applicants must provide three audio samples of their performances. The samples must include one Wes Montgomery cover song and two additional songs, one of which must be a ballad. Additionally, a video performance sample, not to exceed six minutes, must be submitted via YouTube or Vimeo. Notice in Graham Dechter's submissions, the performance is cut off after his solo to meet the time requirements.
• The cover songs were all written by Wes Montgomery: Jingles, Four on Six, Far Wes, Full House, Road Song, Leila, The Trick Bag, Wes Tune, Serene, West Coast Blues and associated  Finale Files. Transcriptions of actual Wes Montgomery performances are available for the songs (see the sources here, except Leila--does anyone have a transcription?). Lead sheets for each song are available for download on the web site (here).
• Total performance time for all three submissions must not exceed ten minutes. The submissions  are meant to show the contestant's abilities and need not be broadcast quality. The performances can either be solo jazz guitar, fronting a live band or playing over a pre-recorded track.
• The judges will include Pat Martino, Robert Montgomery (one of Wes Montgomery's sons) and others. Five finalists will get the trip to New York city.
• The grand prize is a $5000 Pat Martino Signature Model Benedetto Guitar.
• Submissions are due by 2:00 pm Eastern Time July 15, 2015.

For those thinking about a submission, an interesting strategic issue is how close to base your performance on Wes Montgomery's existing discography. This is really a tough question since Montgomery's performances of his own songs are all canonical and not many other jazz musicians have covered every song. One place to start would be to listen to Pat Martino and Emily Remler who have both freely played Wes Montgomery songs in their own style and some transcriptions are available (here and here). My guess is that some quotes or stylistic elements from Wes Montgomery's solos wouldn't hurt (see my next post).

The submission process is easy and I suggest all eligible jazz guitarists (particularly high school and college students) give it a try. Since you can listen to all the other submissions, there is a lot to be learned about playing jazz guitar and entering competitions which are not everyday events specifically for jazz guitar. I wish I met the age requirements!