Wes Montgomery

Jazz guitarist whose thumb attack and octave melodies brought hard bop lyricism to a wider 1960s audience.

Biography

Jazz guitarist whose thumb attack and octave melodies brought hard bop lyricism to a wider 1960s audience.

Influence

Octave-and-chord soloing became jazz guitar pedagogy; fusion and smooth-jazz lineages both claim him—sometimes against his harder early records.

Historical context

Jazz guitarist whose thumb attack and octave melodies brought hard bop lyricism to a wider 1960s audience. Octave-and-chord soloing became jazz guitar pedagogy; fusion and smooth-jazz lineages both claim him—sometimes against his harder early records. He practiced softly at night with thumb instead of pick so as not to wake his neighbors—technique born from constraint.

Associated instruments

Electric Guitar

Specimen note

He practiced softly at night with thumb instead of pick so as not to wake his neighbors—technique born from constraint.