A fabulous jazz player with a natural musical ability, John L. (Wes) Montgomery (1925—68) was born in Indianapolis, surrounded by a musical family, with brothers Monk playing bass and Buddy on vibes and piano. Wes was inspired by Charlie Christian; when he was developing his technique in the 1940s, he memorized Christian's solos and he also absorbed ideas from Django Reinhardt, including the use of octaves.

Montgomery plays with his thumb, giving him a full sound for single lines and chords, and his remarkable tone is deep and almost acoustic. His percussive phrasing is surprisingly complex, with arpeggios full of slides and hammered grace notes with a touch of bluesy vocabulary giving a speech-inflected expressiveness. His long lines sometimes use whole-tone scales and altered scale patterns. Montgomery worked with Lionel Hampton in the late 1940s before returning to Indianapolis where he took a day job and worked around the clubs. Recordings in a group from the end of 1957 include "Sound Carrier" which displays his finely controlled rhythmic comping and bubbly soloing style. On “Lois Ann" he uses a harplike sound for the chord-melody playing; his clear tone and rhythmic octaves and chord playing can be heard on his composition Fingerpickin.

His first album as leader was The Wes Montgomery Trio (1959). This has a magical version of Thelonius Monk's "Round Midnight" with understated background organ layering and drums with brushes. Montgomery's improvising is profound and moving as he plays and embellishes the melody with a relaxed mastery. Fresh ideas burst forth in this slow-tempo piece and at the end Montgomery conjures sublime flourishes. His debt to the blues can be heard on his composition "Missile Blues" with its calling riffs and elegant octave solo passages.

Montgomery produced other outstanding albums including So Much Guitar (1961). The hard-driving "Cotton Tail" contains erupting phrases, "I Wish I Knew" is lyrical and rhetorical, and "I'm just a lucky so and so" bouncy and optimistic. On "While we’re Young," Montgomery creates deep-toned voicings and is soulful on "One for my baby."

The live Full House (1962) demonstrates an assertive Montgomery in a steaming quintet session with Johnny Griffin on tenor sax. The title track offers cascading lines, there are exuberant solos on "Blue 'n Boogie," and "S.O.S." features a fast unison guitar and sax head and repeated figures, and an exciting climax where the band swap fours.

At the end of 1964 Montgomery began putting down lighter music using big band and string backing arrangements. Albums include Movin' Wes Parts 1 and 2 (1965), Bumpin' (1965), and Smokin' at the half note (1965), which provides a showcase for a purer jazz setting.

Standards & Originals

The album the incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960) is split between standards and Montgomery's own compositions, including "West Coast Blues." "Airegin" burns with articulate bop ideas, while Montgomery's chord melody on "In Your Own Sweet Way" has a harplike sound. There is a rounded bassy tone to "Gone with the Wind" and finely articulated lines with rhythms and accents including slow triplets. Octaves hang in the air on a sentimental piece "Polka Dots and Moonbeams." His "Four on Six" has a rhythmic head and relaxed groove, including ascending arpeggio-based flourishes.

"West coast blues"

One of Wes Montgomery's best-known and most appealing compositions, "West Coast Blues" was recorded in New York in January 1960. It is unusual with a ¾ time signature and a 24-bar length, and sections with chord changes modulating through tonal centers. With Tommy Flanagan on piano, Percy Heath on bass, and Albert Heath on drums, the graceful attractive melody is deceptively complex, with triplets, expressive upper tones with grace notes, and sinuous harmonic links. Wes Montgomery takes a well-paced extended solo that swings and is full of melodic invention, with his hallmark octaves and short passages of fast strumming. As with many of his solos, it has a sense of direction with a beginning and end conveying meaning, architecture, and form.