Why Wes Montgomery is the Greatest Jazz Guitar Player

[Dennis D]

Are you talking about your dad?

: )

No, the guy was a bartender I worked with in college.........About 3-4 nights a week after closing we'd go back to his place and drink beer and listen to the music.....
I couldn't disagree with him at all - -Smokin' At The Half Note was on another level.....

And to that guy, my pal Terry, all the best, always !

[princeplanet]

Martino had better lines (and more of them), while Benson had a flashier and bluesier thing going on, but Wes was still the greatest, because of all the things mentioned above. For me, those guys will always be the "Holy Trinity" of Jazz guitar. Then there's maybe a couple dozen on the next tier below, and a few thousand on the one down from there.

Of course, IMVHO.

Then there's the rest of us...

[AndyV]

I'm late to the party here but have to agree with much that's been said. I admire so many players ... Kessel, Hall, Szabo, Pass, Reinhardt, etc. but Wes remains my favorite jazz guitarist. This is what I hear in his playing that is so compelling:

1. Overall musicality. While much of what he plays is guitaristic, his choices of notes and the way he places them in time have a unique fluidity and feeling of perfection that transcends the instrument. Where he places the rests are just as important as the notes.

2. Rhythm. Wes had complete command of the typical 50's and 60s jazz guitar language but what stands for me is his time and feel for rhythms that were unique and/or especially compelling... his octave playing, tremolos and triplet strumming. He was a master at creating and releasing tension. His solo on 'Impressions' is a case in point - he creates almost unbearable musical tension before the listener can finally relax.

3. Feeling for beauty. This is the most subjective point but as an earlier poster said taste cannot be taught and for my money, Wes' taste was impeccable and refreshing.

4. Innovation within an idiom. His chord melody and octave playing took these techniques to a new place and the way he built the architecture of his solos was so strong - like telling a great story. Not always, but often, he would build from single notes to octaves to chordal playing and it would just lift the music up in such a wonderful way.

My favorite example of his musicality is one of his European recordings of 'Here's that Rainy Day' where he begins with several choruses of double octaves (1st & 6th strings), essentially, playing the solo on one string conceptually, but with incredible feel and musicality - beyond what many would have done with that same solo space.

[Aiq]

I don't know, but in '68, shortly after Wes' passing, this book was published - long since out of print.

This can be viewed on Scribd.

I don’t use the “best” label anymore but I just got a copy of the expanded Grooveyard and I am certainly enjoying it!