Wes Montgomery – The Most Amazing Jazz Music Guitarist Ever – Part 4
One of the most exciting facets of the guitar playing style of Wes Montgomery was his jazz chord playing! He had a natural ability for chord melody solos and was able to seamlessly integrate improvised block chording into his solo playing – as in “Cariba”, “Sundown”, “Missile Blues” and a great number of others that are still available in numerous collection books of jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablature. His harmonic conception was “piano thinking” applied to the guitar and at the time appeared impossible – particularly when considering the ease and smoothness with which he performed his chord passages even at extremely quick speeds! Wes simply heard it that way and again, redefined all of the rules.
Wes was equally adept at harmonizing and performing a melody (the head of a song) with his block chord approach, typically building uncommon and flagrantly peculiar voicings to the harmonic framework of the tune! Instances in point are the striking performances discovered in the Broadway standard “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” and his original composition “Mi Cosa”. He performed his chord passages with a thumb strumming technique similar in articulation to his octave playing.
Wes Montgomery was a master of melodic creation – possessing the facility, emotional content, taste, and originality to transform any piece of music into an ear catching music experience. As an improviser Wes was particularly concerned with motif development, however in a natural and instinctive way. He was the consummate story teller – leading an enthralled audience in chorus after chorus of inspired guitar playing – revealing a motif here, developing it later on, introducing a blues move, and after that seasoning it with bebop modernism and chromatic tension.
Wes’ motifs and signature guitar lines ran the gamut from straightforward blues ideas to complex bebop lines. Just like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker, Montgomery was always aware of exactly where he was in the harmonic scheme of a composition. He consistently changed textures, rhythmic and harmonic complexity, and changes of register. Lastly, regardless of the tempo, Wes Montgomery always kept lyricism, fluidity, and precision – and above all else, “soul” in all of his improvising.
Wes Montgomery produced a lot of of his greatest solos with great priority for form. Utilizing the fundamental components of single notes, octaves, and block chords he pursued a particular approach which was a general 3 tier plan generally occuring over many choruses. Beginning with single note soloing in the beginning choruses, Wes would after that progress to octaves and typically arrived at a powerful climax of block chording in the closing choruses. These were occasionally made much more ear catching with the use of a blues based question and answer treatment of octave “punches” interspersed with repeating chord phrases reminiscent of a big band “shout chorus”. Wes Montgomery’s sense of improvisation was almost uncanny and precisely the kind of universal musicality that turned the jazz industry on its’ collective ear – attracting even the non-jazz listener to his ingratiating jazz guitar style!
Peabody Conservatory trained guitarist Steven Herron helps guitar players become better guitarists. His company ChordMelody.com features an enormous selection of jazz guitar tabs
as well as instructional DVDs by Wes Montgomery himself. Find out more and claim Steven’s popular free monthly guitar lesson e-course available at: =>
http://www.chordmelody.com/Wes-Montgomery.htm
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