hollywood: Wes Montgomery

Thursday, 28 June 2012

Wes Montgomery

Nearly thirty years after his death from a heart attack at age forty-five, John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery remains the standard for modern jazz guitarists. He is to his idiom what Segovia is to the classical form, B.B. King to electric blues, and Jimi Hendrix to rock. Although Wes’s original model, Charlie Christian (1916–1942), essentially wrote the Old Testament of jazz and blues guitar, the disciples of Montgomery’s New Testament are a fervent congregation. Says drummer Jimmy Cobb: "I’ve played all over the world, from Hong Kong to Italy to Australia