Here’s vid of one of my favorite guitarist’s Wes Montgomery (aka ‘The Thumb’ because of his picking technique.) Filmed in Belgium in 1965 the jazz quartet performs John Coltrane’s Impressions.
Wes Montgomery is often considered the greatest of modern Jazz guitarists. Following the early work of swing/pre-bop guitarist Charlie Christian and gypsy-jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt, Wes arguably put guitar on the map as a bebop or post-bop instrument. Although Johnny Smith was the guitarist in the original New York Bebop scene, and Tal Farlow also made amazing contributions in the 1950’s to bebop guitar, each of these men curtailed their own output in the 1960s, creating a vacuum that Montgomery naturally filled with virtuousic playing. While many Jazz players are regarded as virtuosos, Montgomery was unique in his wide influence on other virtouosos who followed him, and in the respect he earned from his contemporaries. To many, Montgomery’s playing defines jazz guitar and the sound that many try to emulate. It is hard to argue there was a more influential Jazz guitarist than Wes Montgomery.
[Courtesy Wikipedia]
Filed under: Guitarists, Jazz, Music, Video, You Tube, jazz musician
