Artist:Wes Montgomery
Song:Windy
Album:Work from Home with Wes Montgomery
This is another in my series of Jazz for Beginners complete with a performance video clip and an affordable compilation. Wes Montgomery was a great jazz guitarist who was influential because of his technique and also because in his later recordings he had mainstream commercial success. His 1967 single Windy was a top fifty pop hit and the album A Day in the Life was a big seller. Jazz purists complained that this wasn't jazz. But jazz was in the doldrums at the time and needed to change. Of course jazz purists prefer Montgomery's earlier recordings on Riverside. He was born John Leslie Montgomery Mar. 6, 1923 in Indianapolis. The nickname Wes is a child's abbreviation of Leslie. His bothers were also jazz musicians. William "Monk" Montgomery played bass and Charles "Buddy" Montgomery played vibraphone and piano. When their parents split up, the boys moved to Columbus, OH to live with their father. After high school, they moved back to Indianapolis. Montgomery got married and was working as a welder. When he heard a Charlie Christian record, Montgomery taught himself to play guitar by imitating Christian. He had no formal instruction and couldn't read music. Montgomery started playing Indianapolis clubs while working at a milk company in the daytime. Then in 1948, Lionel Hampton came through Indianapolis and hired Montgomery because he sounded like Charlie Christian. Montgomery was in the Hampton band for two years. He was afraid to fly so he drove to all the shows. He returned to Indianapolis to play clubs. He formed a band with his brothers and they moved to Los Angeles in 1957. Monk and Buddy formed The Mastersounds and recorded a couple of albums for Pacific Jazz. Wes returned to Indianapolis to lead a trio with organist Melvin Rhyne. When Cannonball Adderley saw him, he convinced Riverside Records owner Orrin Keepnews to sign him. After recording a couple of albums, Wes and Rhyne moved back to Los Angeles to form The Montgomery Brothers with Monk and Buddy. They split up after a couple of albums and Wes returned to Indianapolis. Montgomery left Riverside for Verve in 1963. By this time, Norman Granz had sold Verve to MGM and they brought in Creed Taylor to produce. Taylor was a proponent of commercializing jazz and he went on to start CTI Records. Jazz purists complained about Montgomery's Verve albums. But those albums sold at a time when jazz was not selling. Call it a formula if you like. But it was successful. When it became clear to Taylor that MGM was going to close Verve, he started his own label CTI and got A&M to distribute Montgomery's 1967 album A Day in the Life. The single Windy reached #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the album reached #13 on the Billboard 200. The musicians on the album were Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Grady Tate on drums and Ray Barretto on percussion. Plus an orchestra arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky. Montgomery recorded three albums for A&M and his success likely would have continued. Except he died of a heart attack on June 15, 1968 at age 45. This comp was released by Verve in 2020 and is available digitally. It has over three hours of music. Here's Wes Montgomery performing Windy on a 1967 episode of The Hollywood Palace.
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