Legends Of Jazz Guitar [Vol1] 1-57940-901-6

Citation preview

Legends of

Jazz Guitar Volume One featuring Wes Montgomery Barney Kessel Herb Ellis Joe Pass

Plus Bonus track s Wes Montgomery in Belgium, 1965

LEGENDS

OF

JA ZZ GUITA R

V OLUME ONE by M ark Hum phrey Photo by Duncan Schiedt

Jazz and the guitar started getting seriously chum m y about the tim e the artists in this video w ere born. Jazz w as the sensational new kid on the m usical block in the 1920s; the steel-string guitar w as itself an ingenue, and no one w as too sure w hat it could do. Brashly, it unseated the banjo in jazz bands and becam e a cornerstone of the rhythm section. A few outstanding players, forem ost am ong them Eddie Lang, tested the guitar’s capabilities as a solo jazz instrum ent. By the tim e our four legends w ere in their teens, the guitar had been am plified to keep apace w ith the era’s brassy bands. The instrum ent’s technical evolution w ent hand-in-hand w ith stylistic developm ents in jazz and popular m usic. At each turn, im aginative players stepped in to explore new possibilities. By the tim e they entered their tw enties, the four guitarists in our video w ere ready, w illing, and able to put their stam p on jazz history. As this video dem onstrates, they continued to do so over subsequent decades. Sw ing, bebop, and ballads are abundant here, as is the blues. “ It’s very im portant to recognize that jazz is a par ticular dialect of m usic,” Barney Kessel w rote in his “ Guitar Jour2

nal” ( Guitar Player, M ay 1977) . “ It has its ow n vernacular, its ow n values and shadings.” That vernacular is spoken here w ith elegant zest by four legendary ar tists w ho helped push the guitar from the back pages to the front cover of the jazz lexicon.

W ES MONTGOMERY “ The m ost m odern and hippest guitarist of our tim e.” — George Benson on Wes M ontgom ery Photo by Chuck Stewart

Being m odern and hip exacts a price. M ontgom ery w as the first ( and one of the few ) jazz guitarists to becom e a star beyond the purview of jazz lovers. His flir tation w ith pop idiom s and audiences w as deem ed a gross infidelity by his initial ( and m ost ardent) supporters. “ He w as very unhappy and d ist u rb ed b y t h is at t it u d e,” recalled h is d iscip le, Geo rge Benson. “ He died a very sad m an.” It’s tem pting to depict M ontgom ery as a tragic figure, a victim of his ow n success. There m ay be som ething to this view , but the joyous figure seen in this video vividly counters it. Any great talent struck dead by a heart attack at age 43 is, in a sense, tragic. But M ontgom ery’s creative trium phs endure. Critic M arc Gridley hailed him as “ probably the best hard bop guitarist.” Joe Pass ranked Montgom ery in a trinity alongside Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt: “ the only three real innovators on the gui3

tar.” M ontgom ery’s jazz-pop forays have not diluted his reputation am ong those w ho really heard him play, as he does in these 1965 perform ances on the BBC’s Jazz 6 25 program . Given Montgom ery’s enduring im pact, it’s rem arkable that less than a decade elapsed betw een his 1959 discovery and his death in 1968. With an understatem ent analogous to his style, M ontgom ery succinctly said: “ I had to play and tell m y story.” John Leslie M ontgom ery’s story began in 1925. The Indianapolis native w as already grow n and m arried w hen he fell in love w ith the guitar in 1943. The reason? It w as a recording by a m an w ho had died the previous year, Charlie Christian’s “ Solo Flight.” “ That w as it for m e,” M ontgom ery recalled. “ There w as no w ay out. That cat tore everybody’s head up...he said so m uch on records.” Christian’s records w ere M ontgom ery’s constant com panion for m onths as he labored over a guitar in hopes of com ing close to Christian’s sound. “ I started off practicing w ith a plectrum ,” he recalled. “ I did this for about 30 days. Thin I decided to plug in m y am plifier and see w hat I w as doing. The sound w as too m uch even for m y next-door neighbors. So I took to the back of the house, and began plucking the strings w ith the fat par t of m y thum b. This w as m uch quieter. To this technique, I added the trick of playing the m elody line in tw o different reg isters at the sam e tim e — the octave thing.” “ The octave thing” w ould becom e M ontgom ery’s stylistic signature. “ Voicing lines in octaves w as not new to jazz guitar,” observed M arc Gridley in Jazz Styles, “ but M ontgom ery’s use of this device did m uch to popularize the approach.” At first, how ever, M ontgom ery w as just looking for a gig. “A cat hired m e for the Club 440,” he recalled. “ I’d play Charlie Christian’s solos, then lay out.” M ontgom ery w orked around Indianapolis, occasionally venturing out on the road w ith a touring band, and earned his first break in 1948 w hen Lionel Ham pton hired him . “ He allow ed m e to keep m y am p on during the entire length of the num bers w e played,” M ontgom ery recalled, “ not just during m y solos.” Encouraged, Montgom ery rose to the occasion: “ I began w orking hard and experim enting w ith techniques,” he recalled, “ seeking out the ones that felt good and w ere m ost expressive of m y thoughts. M y explorations continued for quite aw hile. M y technique im proved, developing out of particular playing situations. More and m ore of m e passed through m y am plifier to those w ho took tim e to listen.” 4

Photo by Chuck Stewart

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For years, how ever, listening to Montgom ery m eant show ing up at the Turf Bar or M issile Room in Indianapolis. After a tw o-year stint w ith Ham pton he settled into a g rueling routine w hich divided his energies betw een daytim e em ploym ent at a radio parts factory and nightly gigs. M ontgom ery had seven children and took his parental responsibilities seriously. “ Som e m usicians m ight...cut off the rest of the w orld to concentrate exclusively on their thing,” said M ontgom ery. “ What sort of person w ould I be,” he asked rhetorically, “ if I’d devoted all m y tim e to the instrum ent...? There are other things going on, you know .” And the grind w hich kept his fam ily fed also tem pered M ontgom ery the m usician: “ From all that scuffling,” he reflected, “ I learned a lot about discipline as an entertainer.” In 1959, Cannonball Adderly heard M ontgom ery at the M issile Room and called Bill Grauer and Orrin Keepnew s of Riverside Records w ith new s of his find. Within a m atter of w eeks, M ontgom ery and his M issile Room trio had recorded the m aterial for tw o Riverside album s, Boss Guitar ( Riverside RLP 67301) and ‘Round Midnight ( Riverside RLP 673099) . Acclaim w as instantaneous: critics com pared M ontgom ery to John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. down beat aw arded him its New Star honors in 1960, the sam e year Billb oard called Montgom ery the “ m ost prom ising instrum entalist of the year.” That prom ise w as fulfilled on further Riverside recordings and a touring schedule w hich eventually m oved M ontgom ery to San Francisco. “ When Wes cam e on the scene,” reflected veteran San Francisco critic Ralph Gleason, “ he w as so innovative and so pow erful that he just sw ept the other guys aw ay into the studios.” When Riverside folded in 1964, Montgom ery’s talents w ere enlisted by producer Creed Taylor at the Verve label. There M ontgom ery’s m usic took a turn w hich disappointed his jazz fans but w hich earned him a far broader audience. “ He took today’s better pop tunes and played them w ith such jazz feeling and pow er that he caught the ear of the pop listener by what he w as playing,” w rote Dom Cerulli, “ and the im agination of the jazz listener by how he w as playing w hat he w as p l ayi n g.” N o t al l j azz l i st e n e r s w e r e cap t i vat e d , b u t M ontgom ery’s version of “ Going Out of M y Head” claim ed the 1966 Gram m y for Best Instrum ental Jazz Perform ance. To his critics, M ontgom ery said frankly: “ Those w ho criticize m e for playing jazz too sim ply and such are m issing the 6

Photo by Duncan Schiedt

David Baker-Wes M ontgom ery Sextet,

point. There’s a jazz concept to w hat I’m doing, but I’m playing popular m usic and it should be regarded as such.” Luckily, at least one significant ‘pre-pop’ per form ance by M ontgom ery exists on videotape. Pianist Harold M abern, bassist Arthur Harper, and drum m er Jim m y Lovelace join him in a 1965 perform ance for the BBC’s Jazz 6 25 program . “ Tw isted Blues,” a Montgom ery com position, gives generous solo space t o M ab ern an d Harp er as w ell as o fferin g a p len it u d e o f M o n t go m e r y’ s si gn at u r e sh i m m e r y, sw o o p i n g o ct ave s. “Jingles,” another M ontgom ery original, show cases the tightness of this quartet driving through bluesy bop terrain. By contrast, the pop chestnut “ Yesterdays” finds its w istful m elody sw ung in a cool w ay. ( A 1933 Jerom e Kern tune, “ Yesterdays” debuted in the m usical Roberta in w hich a young Bob Hope appeared in the stage production.) Montgom ery plays it punchy w ithout grandstanding, an art tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin adm ired in his old jam m ing par tner: “ He had a fantastic creative force,” Griffin said of M ontgom ery. “ Everything he did in life w as rounded out, definitive. No w aste of energ y or em otions.”

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Photo by Tom Copi

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J OE PA SS “ By the end of the 19 8 0s, he w as the m ost recorded guitarist in jazz history, and arguably the m ost gifted.” — Leonard Feather on Joe Pass

He becam e know n for his sensitive accom panim ent to the likes of pianists George Shearing and Oscar Peterson and singers Sarah Vaughn and Carm en M cRae. He w ould later share the spotlight w ith such legends as Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington. A consum m ate accom panist ( “ Singers w orshipped him ,” w rote Leonard Feather) , Joe Pass really excelled as a soloist. It’s in that role w e see him on this video. Born Joseph Anthony Passalaqua in New Brunsw ick, New Jersey in 1929, Pass w as a child prodigy on the guitar. Encouraged by a strict father w ho had him practicing up to six hours a day, Pass w as playing in local bands at age 12 in his hom etow n, Johnstow n, Pennsylvania. By the tim e he w as 18 he w as on the road w ith Charlie Barnet’s orchestra ( Barney Kessel had held the guitar chair in that band prior to Pass) . Pass found him self in New York “ hanging around the bebop scene” just as that new m usic w as gelling. He w as an eager participant in endless jam sessions, but fell prey to a frequent pitfall of the late 1940s jazz scene, heroin. Pass spent the 1950s in a tw ilight zone of drug addiction, playing bebop for strippers ( “ They didn’t care w hat you played, as long as the tem po w as right” ) and w andering from one m arginal gig to the next. He served tim e for possession in Texas and finally straightened him self out in 1961 at California’s Synanon Foundation. The 1962 Pacific Jazz release, Sounds of Synanon, focused attention on Pass, w ho earned dow n beat’s New Star aw ard in 1963. His subsequent album s as frontm an and in the com pany of the likes of Les M cCann and Richard ‘Groove’ Holm es w ere augm ented by extensive studio session w ork in the 1960s. 1974’s Virtuoso album ( Pablo 2310 707) w as Pass’s breakthrough. It show cased the solo style seen in this video. “ Years ago,” Pass told Jim Ferguson ( Guitar Player, Septem ber 1984) , “ I played the first part of a set alone because I couldn’t find m y rhythm section — they w ere out in the crow d drinking.” In tim e Pass found he had enough m aterial and facility to play an entire set solo, thanks in par t to his developm ent of fingerstyle technique. “ I alw ays used a pick in the past,” he told Ferguson, “ but practically everything I do now is fingerstyle.” 9

Photo by Tokao Miyakaku

In a 1986 Guitar Player cover feature, “ One On One w ith Joe Pass” ( August 1986) , Pass elaborated: “ M y m usic is based on a fingerstyle approach,” Pass w rote, “ w hich enables you to play things that are very difficult, if not im possible, to do w ith a pick. By using your fingers, you can play tw o different par ts at the sam e tim e, freely sw itch betw een single notes and chords, and have m ore control over the chord voicings.” We see w hat Pass m eans in a 1974 perform ance of his “ Original Blues in G” at Ronnie Scott’s club in London. He invests the blues structure w ith exceptional harm onic sophist i cat i o n . Li kew i se, h e l en d s am p l e b l u esi n ess t o Du ke Ellington’s “ Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from M e,” a 1975 perform ance for the BBC. It illustrates Pass’s conviction: “ When you’re including bass, m elody, and chords all at once, things w ork best w hen the m elody is your m ost im por tant consideration. In other w ords, you should alw ays have a m elodic line in m ind w hen m oving from chord to chord.” Few guitarists ever m ade those m oves w ith such dazzling elegance as Joe Pass. “A lot of guitar players play solos,” observed Pass’s longtim e accom panist, guitarist John Pisano, “ but for the m ost part they’re kind of m em orized and pretty m uch w orked out w ith a few variations. But Joe, every night, w hatever the tune m ight be he w ould do differently. He’d play in different keys; he’d put him self on the spot. I think that w as one of the things that people picked up on. You’d be holding your breath saying, ‘How ’s he going to get out of this one?’” The guitar lost its m aster im proviser on M ay 2 3, 1994. 10

Photo by Tom Copi

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BA RNEY K ESSEL “ Barney Kessel’s got a lot of feeling, he’s got a good conception of chords in a jazz m anner. He’s not just standing still at one level.” — Wes M ontgom ery

Barney Kessel never stood still. In 1940, he got to jam w ith his idol, Charlie Christian. Five years later, he w as sitting in w ith Charlie Parker. The transition from sw ing to bebop w as one Kessel pioneered am ong jazz guitarists, and he never looked back. “ Som etim es people forget that older m usicians are still grow ing, still gaining m ore experience,” Kessel observed in a 1972 Guitar Player interview . Kessel’s far-ranging experiences have greatly enhanced the w orld of jazz guitar. Born in M uskogee, Oklahom a in 1923, Kessel began playing guitar at age 12. “ One of m y earliest desires,” he w rote in a 1974 Guitar Player colum n, “ w as to transm it w hat I felt inside to the fingerboard.” He w as doing it w ell enough to join a local jazz band at 14: “ I w as the only w hite guy,” Kessel recalled. “ They helped m e to understand how to play jazz.” That understanding w as deeply enhanced by Kessel’s m eeting Charlie Christian in Oklahom a City: “ Charlie told m e m any things,” Kessel w rote in his “ Guitar Journal” ( Guitar Player, February 1977) , “ such as the im portance of swing w hen playing jazz. He said it w as im por tant to get som e fire going, get an em otion; no m atter w hat else you do, get that feeling.” Shortly after his encounter w ith Christian, Kessel left Oklahom a and w orked briefly in the upper M idw est before settling in California in 1942. Steady em ploym ent follow ed in a succession of big bands, including those of Ar tie Shaw , Charlie Barnet, and Benny Goodm an. Kessel appeared w ith Lester Young in the 1944 film short, Jam m in’ the Blues, and tw o years later played on a Charlie Parker date for Dial Records. His initiation into bebop had begun. Frequent calls to Hollyw ood’s studios to accom pany such singers as Sinatra and Billie Holiday w ere balanced by per form ances in a rem arkable trio: Kessel, pianist Oscar Peterson and bassist Ray Brow n. Recalling this threesom e, guitarist Jim m y Stew art w rote: “ Barney’s solo w as absolutely m agnificent. He played w ith the rhythm ic m agic and im agination of Christian’s playing, and his notes and phrasing w ere sim ilar to that of the finest alto saxophonist of that period, Charlie Parker.” 1953’s Easy Like ( Contem porary C3511) w as the beginning of Kessel’s lengthy recording career as leader. Despite a 12

Photo by Tom Copi

heavy schedule of session w ork, he w as probably the m ost visible jazz guitarist of the 1950s, judging by his frequent down beat poll w ins, and his perform ances in this video show him playing at the peak of his pow ers tw o decades later. “ Basie’s Blues” ( from a 1973 Sw edish television program ) cooks, w hile the Kessel original, “A Slow Burn,” sizzles. His partner in this 1979 Iow a Public Television perform ance, Herb Ellis, obviously shares Kessel’s grounding in bop and sw ing: “ I’m a direct descendant of the Charlie Christian school,” Ellis declared in an interview w ith Arnie Berle ( Guitar Player, April 1978) . “ With Barney, w e’re both from the sam e background, so w hen w e play together w e m ay w ind up playing the sam e things. It’s unreal; w e start out playing lines that are parallel or counter or crossing, and w e’ll w ind up playing the sam e phrase alm ost.” The feeling and “ good conception of chords” Wes M ontgom ery praised is am ply evident in Kessel’s solo perform ance of John M andel’s “ The Shadow of Your Sm ile.” Beautifully phrased, the perform ance gives m eaning to Kessel’s assertion, “ I sing through m y guitar.”

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HERB ELLIS “ He w as the best guitar player in Texas... Alw ays, Herb could play the blues.” — Gene Roland on Herb Ellis, a classm ate at North Texas State College, circa 194 0. Photo by Tom Copi

Herbert M itchell Ellis has had a career w hich closely parallels that of his friend, Barney Kessel. Born in McKinney, Texas, in 1921, Ellis w as about ten w hen he star ted playing guitar. He w as already an accom plished player by the tim e he w ent to college at North Texas State, but he w asn’t yet a jazz player. “ When Herb cam e to school,” fellow North Texas State alum Gene Roland recalled, “ he w as a hillbilly guitarist. But w hen h e go t l i st en i n g t o Ch arl i e Ch ri st i an ’s reco rd s w i t h t h e Goodm an Sextet, he seem ed transform ed overnight into a jazz player.” Ellis graduated in 1941 and headed for Kansas City, w here he w ent to w ork w ith Glen Gray’s Casa Lom a Orchestra. “ I started to get som e w riteups in down beat and Metronom e ,” Ellis recalled. “ Then Jim m y Dorsey m ade m e an offer.” Ellis’s guitar w as an im portant feature of such Dorsey band hits as “ Perdido” and “J.D.’s Jum p.” “ Big band w ork had a lot of effect on m e,” said Ellis, “ especially rhythm -w ise. At that tim e, you had to m ainly play rhythm . How ever, in Jim m y’s band I played a lot of solos and a lot of lines w ith the different sections, w hich w as quite unusual at the tim e.” 14

After his Dorsey days, Ellis spent four years in a trio called the Soft Winds — piano, guitar, and bass trios w ere all the rage in the late ’40s. Pianist Oscar Peterson som etim es sat in, and w hen Barney Kessel left Peterson’s trio in 1953, Ellis took his place. “ I had no trouble backing him up,” Ellis recalled to Arnie Berle, “ But those really fast tem pos w ere hard, and I realized that if I w ere to rem ain w ith Oscar I’d better get m y act together. So I practiced a lot of scales and things to build up m y speed.” In The History of the Guitar in Jazz ( Oak Publications, New York, 1983) , Norm an M ongan contrasted t h e co n t ri b u t i o n s o f Kessel an d El l i s t o Pet erso n ’s t ri o : “ Whereas Kessel’s am plified w ork had been criticized for its overpow ering loudness, Ellis’s w ork w as light but pow er ful, blending tightly w ith Ray Brow n’s m agnificent bass w ork... The team of Ellis and Brow n w as probably the hardest sw ing ing rhythm pair on the jazz scene during the 1950s.” Late in 1958, Ellis parted com pany w ith Peterson and spent a year in the quar tet accom panying Ella Fitzgerald. In the 1960s, Ellis did som e recordings as frontm an — the Verve album , Nothing but the Blues, m et w ith raves — but m ost of his tim e w as spent in Hollyw ood studios recording everything from jingles to soundtracks. He w as also featured in studio bands of the era’s variety-talk show s hosted by Steve Allen, Regis Philbin, Della Reese, and M erv Griffin. Ellis has characterized the life of the studio m usician as “ 99% boredom , 1% absolute terror.” Ellis began stepping into the spotlight m ore frequently in the 1970s, both as a soloist and in tandem w ith such other guitar m asters as Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, and Charlie Byrd. His 1986 perform ances here w ith bassist Dave M aslow reflect an artist still vigorous and vital at age 65. His gorgeous treatm ent of Richard Rogers’ “ It M ight as Well Be Spring” illustrates Ellis’s conviction: “As long as you keep the m elody clean, you can do a lot w ith the harm ony underneath to m ake it really pretty, intriguing, and different.” Duke Ellington’s “ Things Ain’t What They Used to Be” lets Ellis vent his bluesy side w ith som e punchy licks, w hile rippling bursts of notes fall around “ Sw eet Georgia Brow n,” the Ben Bernie-M aceo Pinkard chestnut. His duet w ith Kessel, “A Slow Burn,” offers a driving study in stylistic sim ilarities and contrasting personalities. “ When Barney and I w ork together,” Ellis told Arnie Berle, “ w e’re playing background for each other; w e try to m ake it sw ing, and w e try to vary the tonal color. We m ight just com p a little 15

bit and leave the bass line im plied, or com p and then play a little bass line... It w orks, and that w ay you’re varying the tonal colors. Just keep it cooking.” Photo by Duncan Schiedt

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The Bonus Track s W ES MONTGOMERY 1923-1968 by A drian Ingram Photo cour tesy of Fantasy Records

Of the handful of players w ho defined the ar t and characteristics of m odern jazz guitar, three nam es continually recur: Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Wes M ontgom ery. While it w ould be overly sim plistic to suggest that these players alone shaped the course and destiny of the guitar in jazz, they have been, and continue to be, the overriding, pervasive, influences of the genre. Regardless of the fickle trends and fashions, w hich are so m uch an integral part of popular m usic in the late 2 0th century, M ontgom ery’s popularity show s no sign of dim inution. His recordings are universally revered and rem ain constantly in the catalog. Highly regarded by m usicians and listeners alike, M ontgom ery’s m usic continues to reach new audiences. Its subtle blend of sophistication, and sim plistic inevitability, captivates, m otivates and inspires each new generation of guitar players. As w ith all great jazz players, his m usic is tim eless, transcending vogue and anachronism w ith a vibrancy w hich rem ains as relevant today as w hen it w as first conceived. M any critics, and jazz historians, w ould have us believe that M ontgom ery w as such a huge natural talent that it took little effort for him to develop into the m usical giant he even17

tually becam e. While no one w ould deny his obvious and precosiously apparent m usical gifts, his fully-fledged m ature style w as not form ed w ithout recourse to the usual rounds of dues-paying, disappointm ent and sheer hard w ork. Neither did he begin playing the guitar at the age of 19 and by the follow ing w eek w as hired by a passing club-ow ner, on the strength of being able to replicate all of Charlie Christian’s recorded solos! Nothing could be fur ther from the truth. Monk, Wes’s elder brother, w ho w as a proficient bass player by his late teens, gave an 11 year old Wes a four string “ tenor” guitar to fool around w ith. M onk later recalled that he w as actually playing very w ell by the tim e he w as 12 or 13. Although Wes did not purchase a regular, six string, guitar until he w as 19 or 20, he had already m astered basic four string chord shapes, hand co-ordination and, perhaps m ore im por tantly, further developed an already acute “ m usical ear”. Charlie Christian w as his initial inspiration to beg in a serious study of the fully-fledged six string guitar. It w as during a local dance, w here Wes had Taken his new ly w ed w ife ( Seren e) , th at th e strain s o f th e Ben n y Go o d m an b an d , w ith Ch arlie Ch rist ian , m ad e an in d elib le im p ressio n o n h im . Shortly afterw ards, he recklessly spent a hard earned, and m uch needed $350 on an electric guitar and am plifier. Wes gradually grew m ore and m ore obsessed w ith the instrum ent, and in particular w ith Charlie Christian’s ability to play long stream s of eighth notes like a saxophone or trum pet. Serene recalled that Wes w ould often get together w ith his bassist brother M onk, and play right through the night, w ithout even w anting to go to bed. In fact it w as Serene’s continued com plaints, about the volum e levels from Wes’ am plifier, that eventually led to his abandonm ent of the pick. He told Bill Quinn, in a 1968 Dow nbeat interview , that “ the sound w as too m uch, even for m y neighbours, so I took to a back room in the house and began plucking the strings w ith the fat part of m y thum b. This w as m uch quieter”. Indeed, Wes related this sam e story so often during his career, that it appears to be of sound providence. M uch of his staggeringly virtuosic thum b technique can be attributed to the fact that he m ade this decision relatively early on. Once the decision had been m ade, he w as able to develop a proficiency w ith this unusual technique over a period of tw o decades. By the m id-1940s, Wes w as playing regularly at an Indianapolis Night Club called CLUB 440, w here he apparently cul18

Photo by Duncan Schiedt

David Baker-Wes M ontgom ery Sextet

tivated a good rapport w ith the other m usicians, and perhaps m ore im portantly, began to learn about the chord progressions and structure of “ standard” tunes. As he im proved, Montgom ery spent several short spells on the road, w ith bands like the Brow nskin M odels, Snookum Russell and Four Jacks And A King. It w asn’t until 1948, how ever, that his first big break and indicator of things to com e, occured. On the m orning of M ay 15th, Wes auditioned for vibes player/ bandleader, Lional Ham pton, on the sam e evening, he left hom e for a tw o year stint on the road w ith the Ham pton band. There had been no prior w arning of this prestigious gig and his young w ife , Serene, w as shocked to find him leaving hom e w ith suitcase and guitar in hand. The recordings that Montgom ery m ade w hilst he w as w ith Ham pton reveal how m uch he w as still under the spell of Charlie Christian. The fact that he played such a sim ilar role w ith Ham pton as Christian had done w ith Goodm an, m ust have strengthened his resolve to be a jazz m usician despite the hard w ork, disappointm ent and financial insecurity. On top of the gruelling routine, drudgery of travel and haphazard

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eating schedules, M ontgom ery had a m or tal fear of flying and w ould drive unim aginable distances betw een gigs. Understandably, for the above reasons and m ore, he found that he profoundly disliked everything about life on the road. Finding such protracted spells aw ay from hom e ( and his grow ing young fam ily) increasingly unpalatable, M ontgom ery left the Ham pton band in 1950, and resigned him self to a full-tim e career as an arc-w elder and a par t-tim e career as a jazz guitarist. As w ord got around that Wes w as back in tow n, how ever, he soon found him self even busier than ever, w orking regular gigs w ith the M ontgom ery Johnson Quar tet, as w ell as w ith his brothers M onk and pianist/ vibes player Buddy. He also w orked w ith several pick-up bands, com prising of top local m usicians such as David Baker, Eddie Higgins, Leroy Vinegar and M el Rhyne. By the m id-fifties M ontgom ery w as holding dow n a day job, at a car battery plant and a 9.00 pm till 2.00 am nightly gig at the Turf Bar. Whenever there w ere afterhours jam sessions, at venues like the M issile Room , Hub Hub or Club 10, he w ould be there also, m aking the m ost of the opportunity to stretch out, uncom prom isingly, w iththe m odern lines and harm onic concepts he w as beginning to develop. Wes’s m usical tastes had m oved aw ay from the George Shearing Quintet, w ho the M ontgom ery Brothers had initially im itated, tow ards the m ore experim ental m usics of Miles Davis, Horace Silver and John Coltrane. He w as also beginning to com pose, the evidence of w hich could be heard to good effect on MONTGOM ERYLAND (1958/ 9) w hich contained no less than five of his original tunes. During the late 1950s Wes again spent som e tim e aw ay from hom e, this tim e to w ork and record w ith his brothers in L A. Betw een 1957 and 1959, his by now m ature style had been show cased on no less than five Pacific Jazz album s. On the last of these, A GOOD GIT TOGETHER, w here he w as a sidem an for vocalist Jon Hendricks, it w as another sidem an on the session w ho proactively lifted M ontgom ery’s career to a higher plateau. That sidem an w as alto saxophonist, Cannonball Adderley, w ho w as enjoying great success, both as a leader in his ow n right, and w ith the iconoclastic M iles Davis Qu i n t et . Can n o n b al l h ad h eard ab o u t Wes fro m vari o u s sources, prior to hearing his organ trio on a late night session at the M issile Room . Com pletely overw helm ed that such a huge talent should exist in near obscurity, Cannonball becam e Wes’ chief publicist and m entor. Within a w eek, he had con20

vinced Orrin Keepnew s, of Riverside Records, to fly dow n from New York to Indianapolis, w here he could see this undiscovered jazz giant for him self. Needless to say, M ontgom ery w as signed on the spot, and his place in the pantheon of jazz guarantied. Betw een 1959 and 1963, he recorded 12 superlative album s as leader, or co-leader, and a further 3 as a sidem an w ith Nat Adderley, Harold Land and Cannonball Adderley. These Riverside/ Fantasy recordings constituted a legacy w hich w as to irreconcilably change the future of jazz guitar. One of the first Riverside album s to obtain “ classic” status: THE INCREDIBLE JAZZ GUITAR OF WES MONTGOM ERY (Riverside OJCCD-026), contained four of Wes’ original tunes, tw o of w hich (4 on 6 and West Coast Blues) soon becam e jazz standards. M ongtom ery generally included one or tw o of his ow n tunes on album s and live per form ances. The J azz Prism a broadcast, recorded on the enclosed video, is typical of his program m ing; w hich m ight include a standard show tune (Here’s That Rainy Day), a jazz standard ( John Coltrane’s Im pressions) and tw o originals ( Jingles and Twisted Blues) . Wes w as alw ays a perfectionist, not only in his playing, but also w ith presentation, reper toire and appearance. David Baker once rem arked that, back in the Indianapolis period ( 1950-59) , Wes had been a stickler for rehearsals and w ould run through passages ad infinitum until he achieved the required results. The splendidly refined and polished ensem ble w ork, betw een M ontgom ery’s guitar, M abern’s piano and the rhythm section, on the Prism a per form ance is evidence of this m eticulous approach w hich is especially evident in the im ag inative arrangem ents of Twisted Blues and Here’s That Rainy Day. Jazz Prism a w as recorded in Belgium , during the group’s successful 1965 European tour, w hich also took in Germ any, France and England. By this tim e, Riverside records had run into difficulties and Wes had signed w ith Verve Records, under the auspices of Creed Taylor. It w as Taylor, w ith extensive experience of best-selling jazz m usicians, w ho put M ontgom ery into m usical settings w hich appealed to a w ider audience. He told M ike Hennessey, in a Jazz Journal interview , that from the outset he decided to record M ontgom ery “ in a culturally acceptable context.” Taylor’s culturally acceptable contexts m eant big-bands, strings and contem porary “ pop” tunes. As a result, album s like GOIN OUT OF M Y HEAD (19 65), TEQUILA (19 6 6) and 21

Photo by Duncan Schiedt

CALIFORNIA DREAM ING (19 6 6) sold in huge quantities, com pared to the Riverside recordings. This increased success gave Wes a com m ercial viability, and he becam e a headliner at Jazz Festivals as w ell as a featured ar tist on TV show s such as the Jazz 6 25 (England), Jazz Prism a (Belgium ) and The Hollywood Palace, Steve Allen and Mike Douglas Shows (USA). Collectively, these broadcasts show M ontgom ery at the height of his pow ers. The profound inevitability of his singlelines, am azing fluidity of octave technique and sophistication of harm onic concept, m eld together into a m usic w hich is virtually perfect yet at the sam e tim e never contrived. We are 22

hearing the results of a 25 year process, but those results sound so fresh and natural that it is easy to overlook their cost. Wes M ontgom ery had paid his dues, as m any if not m ore than the next person, but tragically, just as he w as about to reap the fruits of his labor, he died from a heart attack at his Indianapolis hom e on June 15th l968. I n t h e t h r e e d e ca d e s w h i ch h a ve p a sse d si n ce M ongtom ery’s untim ely death, his influence upon other jazz guitarists rem ains undim inished. M any characteristics of his style have perm eated popular m usic across all of its diverse strands. On a m ore concrete level there have been aw ards, scholarships and countless tributes in his nam e. Indianapolis honoured him by renam ing a 3 4 acre m unicipal park - WES M ONTGOM ERY PARK, as w ell as a Wes M ontgom ery sw im m ing pool and perm anent display of m em orabilia ( Guitar, gold discs, trophies and Aw ards) in the Indianapolis Childrens’ m useum . Perhaps the greatest tribute to the m an, how ever, is the reverence in w hich he is held by other jazz m usicians and in the continued popularity of his recorded legacy. The Jazz Pr i sm a sessi o n , sh o w n o n t h i s vi d eo , i s af f i rm at i o n o f M ontgom ery’s status as a jazz great. He w as, how ever, m uch m ore than a great jazz guitarist and com poser, for his m usic transcended the instrum ent and the m echanics of technical accom plishm ent. Although the guitar w as his vehicle, m odern jazz w as his m edium , and in that m edium he w as as im portant a voice as the other illustrious nam es that shaped the m usic. Im portant video footage, such as that seem in the Prism a session, can only further enhance the reputation of this already legendary perform er.

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1. W ES MONTGOMERY Tw isted Blues (19 65)

2. J OE PA SS Original Blues In G

(1974)

3. BA RNEY K ESSEL Basie's Blues (1973)

4. HERB ELLIS M edley: It M ight As Well Be Spring & Things Ain't What They Used To Be (19 8 6)

5. W ES MONTGOMERY Jingles

(19 65)

6. HERB ELLIS & BA RNEY K ESSEL A Slow Burn

(1979)

7. J OE PA SS

S in ce firs t m eetin g in th e 1 9 2 0 s , n eith er ja zz n or th e g u it a r h a v e e v e r b e e n t h e sam e. Th is sw in g in g celeb ration of th a t u n ion p res en ts fou r Leg en d s Of J azz Gu itar: Wes Mon tg om ery , J oe Pas s , B a r n e y Ke s s e l a n d H e rb Ellis . “Of all th e w ay s to im p rov is e ,” s a y s B a rn e y Ke s s e l, “th e m os t s tim u la tin g a n d d e-m an d in g is jazz.” Th e fou r a r t i s t s h e re d e m o n s t ra t e s t u n n in g c o m m a n d o f t h e fin g e rb o a rd a lo n g s id e in s p ired ex p loration s of s tan d a rd s , b l u e s a n d b a l l a d s . Ex p los iv e cas cad es of n otes as w ell as lan g u id p ools of m u s ic p o u r fro m t h e s e m aes tros ' im ag in ation s an d fin g ers . “Th e ob ject for m e,” s a id J o e Pa s s , “is t o p la y m u s ic, to com m u n icate, n ot to s h ow h ard th in g s or fas t th in g s.” W h ile g u itarists w ill n ote p len ty th at's h ard an d fa s t in th is DVD, s om eh ow th ese m asters m ak e ev en th e im p os s ib le ap p ear effortles s . Th at's clas s .

Do Nothin' Till You Hear From M e (1976)

8. BA RNEY K ESSEL The Shadow Of Your Sm ile

(1973)

9. W ES MONTGOMERY Yesterdays (19 65)

10. HERB ELLIS Sw eet Georgia Brow n

(19 8 6)

Bonus track s Wes Montgomery, Belgium 11. Im pressions 12. Tw isted Blues 13. Here’s That Rainy Day 14. Jingles 15. The Boy Next Door

(19 65)

Ru n n in g Tim e: 8 5 m in u tes • B/ W & Co lo r Fro n t Co ver p h o to co u rtesy o f Fan tasy Reco rd s Back Co ver p h o to s b y To m Co p i Natio n ally d istrib u ted b y Ro u n d er Reco rd s, On e Cam p Street, Cam b rid ge, M A 0 2 1 4 0 Rep resen tatio n to M u sic Sto res b y M el Bay Pu b licatio n s ® 2 0 0 1 Vestap o l Pro d u ctio n s / A d ivisio n o f Stefan Gro ssm an 's Gu itar Wo rksh o p In c.

VES TAPOL 1 3 0 0 9 ISBN: 1-57940-901-6

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1 1 6 7 1 30099

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