Wes Montgomery: A Celebration Concert

NARRATOR: Tonight, a celebration of a jazz legend, Wes Montgomery.

An electric concert performance, featuring guitarist Dave Stryker, organist Bobby Floyd, and drummer Sean Dobbins, with the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Jazz Ensemble.

"Wes Montgomery a Celebration Concert."

Next.

[ Applause ] [ Applause ] Wes Montgomery is on the Mount Rushmore of jazz history, not just jazz guitar.

Wes Montgomery is on the Mount Rushmore, period, jazz history.

NARRATOR: For more than two decades, from the 1940s through the 1960s, there was an original sound that emanated from the jazz clubs in Indianapolis, Indiana, and echoed throughout the nation and world, a distinctively different tone that redefined the nature of jazz, the sounds of guitarist John Leslie Montgomery, known by friends and fans alike as Wes.

He developed a style of playing with his thumb, which to that point had not been done.

And it gave him a really beautiful bell-like round sound on his guitar.

But he was just a genius, developed like single-note line solos that would then develop into octaves and then that would develop into these beautiful chordal solos.

NARRATOR: Indianapolis had been home to many jazz legends that once played in the clubs up and down Indiana Avenue in the heart of the city's African-American community.

Wes Montgomery was born in 1923.

His brother Monk sold coal in the city streets to earn enough to buy his brother a four-string tenor guitar when he was just 12 years old.

Wes had a unique approach to the guitar, to phrasing, to his lyricism.

Anytime a musician brings something unique to the table and it changes the way that we're thinking, immediately -- and for the better, immediately, to me, that puts them in a whole different category.

NARRATOR: Influenced by the music of Charlie Christian, Wes began teaching himself intricate jazz rhythms, note for note.

By 1948, big band leader Lionel Hampton discovered Montgomery and hired him away from his day job, where he worked as a welder to support his young family.

He had a way of playing and presenting his style of jazz in an easy way to where it was understood by just about anybody that listened to him.

It's enjoyable.

People that were innovators, people, that, you know, started a style or created something that was really different, that was really creative and effective and that moved people.

Well, Wes Montgomery fits into that group of people.

One measure.

One, two, three.

[ Applause ] [ Applause ] One, two, a one, two, three, and -- [ Applause ] [ Applause ] NARRATOR: Wes Montgomery first gained national acclaim as part of a big band, but spent much of his career in a more intimate trio, alongside his brothers Buddy and Monk, and with other musicians, such as Melvin Rhyne.

Montgomery's musical conversation was always deeply personal.

Wes was very good and musically effective in the way he played in a trio.

Because, you know, you have only three people playing.

You know, so there's a lot of musical ground to cover with just three people.

But, you know, he did -- he played his role very well in playing the trio.

He represents a new way of playing guitar.

He represented this combination of technical brilliance with a responsibility to soulfulness.

The beauty and the drive of his playing, the beauty of his sound, his swinging, phrasing, his feel, you know, his great feel, and his swinging lines, It just really -- you know, I latched on to that.

[ Applause ] [ Applause ] [ Applause ] [ Applause ] [ Applause ] [ Applause ] Wes Montgomery was one of the best guitar players that lived.

And he influenced so many great musicians, even musicians playing today, playing guitar today.

You can always hear a little bit of Wes Montgomery in the way that they play.

NARRATOR: Wes Montgomery died of a heart attack in 1968 when he was only 45 years old.

Stevie Wonder, Lee Ritenour and George Benson all penned tributes to him.

He released more than 20 albums in his lifetime and won two Grammy Awards.

His music continues to inspire generations of musicians throughout the world.

He had this technical sense that could allow him to express himself as sincerely as he wanted to, which I think, that was the thing -- especially from the ears of musicians, those are the things that we dream of, of being able to express ourselves, have command over our instrument, but being able to play what we want and make it a sincere statement.

Wes, his music, is nothing if not positive.

And it feels great.

Anything we can do to celebrate the greats of this music who invented it, you know, the Wes Montgomerys of the world, and, you know, it makes this world a better place for people to know about somebody as great as Wes Montgomery.

[ Applause ] [ Applause ] [ Applause ] [ Applause ]