![]() Montgomery’s run with Buddy and Monk roughly began and ended when the 1950s did. And that’s what defines the first era of Montgomery’s career: fraternal rapport. In 1955, he began playing regular local gigs with his brothers, pianist-vibraphonist Buddy and bassist Monk. In the six years after returning to Indianapolis, after clocking out at one of his several blue-collar day-jobs – at a battery factory, a cafeteria, or a dairy – he gigged in the evenings. His work on the club circuit led to his first big break: a brief stint on the road as part of the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. One thing led to another, and Montgomery began gigging around his hometown of Indianapolis, copying Christian solos. After only two months of practice, his playing caught the ears of a passing club-owner, and he was so impressed that he knocked on Montgomery’s door. The resulting plummy sound became his lifelong trademark. While Montgomery woodshedded Christian’s solos, the neighbors’ noise complaints compelled him to drop the plectrum and play with his thumb. I didn’t hear nobody else for a year or so.” “He was it for me, and I didn’t look at nobody else. “I liked Django Reinhardt and Les Paul and those cats, but it wasn’t what you’d call new,” Montgomery recalled to DownBeat in 1961. His gateway was Charlie Christian, arguably the first famous electric guitarist. Until he received his first guitar at 12 and began seriously practicing at 19, Montgomery was seemingly destined to be a nobody. ![]() ![]() Listen to the best Wes Montgomery pieces on Apple Music and Spotify. He was a naturally talented genius who was born to do this.” All of us who play jazz – and I only attempt to play jazz – we’re not even in the same hemisphere as this man. “And if they’re honest, they’re saying the same thing. “He was a hundred times better,” Pachelli says. If Montgomery could play as nimbly and ably as those guitar pioneers, but with every note matched with its octave partner, wouldn’t that make him twice as good as those revered players? He was able to play that stuff at the same speed that Kenny Burrell or Grant Green could play single-note lines.” Wait. It’s extremely difficult, and nobody was doing that. “You know, I love Grant Green,” says guitarist and instructor Mike Pachelli, plucking one of that celebrated guitarist’s riffs. Decades after his death, his keen ears and boundless imagination still bowl over jazz aficionados and newbies alike. But with the possible exception of Jim Hall, any jazz guitarist with an iota of self-awareness genuflects to him as the greatest to ever do it. He also strummed exclusively with his thumb, an idiosyncrasy that would make any music instructor run faint. Wes Montgomery, arguably its greatest guitarist, couldn’t read music, didn’t know theory, and didn’t understand his instrument’s electronics. The only hard part is figuring out what the shape goes over.If jazz seems too impenetrable and intimidating to get into, dig this. This works especially well on guitar! If you can find a shaped (as Wes has done) then you can move said shape all across the neck. This provides the listener with something to grab on to. Wes shows us that you can take a simple idea and move it through the changes. In Jazz, a lot of people try and cram new ideas into every bar of their improv. Let's look at a couple things in his single note lines that work well on guitar! I was drawn to this solo because 1) it has Wes's amazing bebop language that works so well on guitar 2) it has it one of his famous "Octave" solos. I'll go over some things that I found difficult learning this solo, as well as, some things I thought were interesting that could be expanded upon. First off, thanks for checking out my blog! First real post (with content) on here so that exciting! Today, I have a transcription of Wes Montgomery's famous solo from Smokin' At The Half Note: Four on Six.
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