Wes Montgomery solo on Lolita

[ptjazz]

Here is the Wes solo on the Barry Harris tune Lolita from Cannonball Adderly and the Poll Winners album.

It is a great solo, 64 bars, first 32 are single note and last 32 are octaves.
A lot of amazing lines over ii V I changes.

[sgcim]

Great job! I thought I was listening to Wes!
I just finished a big band arr. I wrote based on a Wes recording, and I transcribed Wes' solo, and harmonized it for saxes, then the next part for trombones, and the final part for trumpets, and it sounds fine, because Wes' conception of his playing was thinking of himself as a one man big band.

People forget that he spent a lot of time in the Hampton big band, and probably got a lot of ideas from the arrangements he played there. In his solo on his great blues composition "The Thumb", he actually quotes two choruses of the Basie chart "Splunky", harmonizing it with a lot of parallel motion chords.

[wintermoon]

Yeah man, very nice! Tough octaves even by Wes standards.
This one still knocks me out...

[ptjazz]

Great job! I thought I was listening to Wes!
I just finished a big band arr. I wrote based on a Wes recording, and I transcribed Wes' solo, and harmonized it for saxes, then the next part for trombones, and the final part for trumpets, and it sounds fine, because Wes' conception of his playing was thinking of himself as a one man big band.

People forget that he spent a lot of time in the Hampton big band, and probably got a lot of ideas from the arrangements he played there. In his solo on his great blues composition "The Thumb", he actually quotes two choruses of the Basie chart "Splunky", harmonizing it with a lot of parallel motion chords.

Thanks!
That is a great idea for a big band arrangement. Please share a link/recording if you have a chance.
Yes, it almost seems like he is doing an arrangement in real time with a lot of his solos.

[ptjazz]

Yeah man, very nice! Tough octaves even by Wes standards.
This one still knocks me out...

Thanks, appreciate the feedback! Yeah, my fingers were feeling it for the first couple days I was working on those octaves.
Yeah, that one is great too! So much great stuff from Wes!

[sgcim]

Thanks!
That is a great idea for a big band arrangement. Please share a link/recording if you have a chance.
Yes, it almost seems like he is doing an arrangement in real time with a lot of his solos.

I did another chart which is a medley of Bock To Bock and Hymn For Carl. I transposed them into the same keys, so it should eff the horn players heads up as to what's going on. They don't know anything by guitarists, so I throw Johnny Smith and Tal Farlow things at them, and they don't know what's going on. I even did a chart on a Dick Garcia tune.