Wes Montgomery

further

One of the best furkin guitarists ever discuss

Van_Hayden

Yes. Ermmm

richardhomer

Beautiful playing. In a different league to most jazzers - lots of soul. SRV's use of octaves in things like Riviera Paradise came straight from WM

viz

The BB King of jazz - he put the soul into jazz guitar playing with his warm tones, octaves, thumb picking, so in many ways "the greatest", and certainly instantly recognisable, but there are others (Al di Meola, John Mclaughlin, Holdsworth, etc), who are also "the greatest" in other aspects or jazz genres.

chillidoggy

Never heard of him.

Jalapeno

One of ?  THE !

frankus

I like Wes. I think there are a lot of really good take homes from his playing:

Unique playing style - played with thumb because he didn't want to wake his kids - always played amplified though .
Limited Musical Knowledge - Thought to have known about 80 chords but every application of them.
Humility - "Really, welding was my talent".

What I really like is that in his bands the other players really come through - like the bass player (who you can hear singing on his solo) on the second take of Cariba.

Megii

Jalapeno said:

One of ?  THE !

Agree with this - for me, the greatest jazz guitarist, period.

frankus

Much as I love Wes (since age 20)... it's crazy to put him on a pedestal.

It's a discount to all the other wonderful guitarists to set him apart: Green, Benson, Reinhardt, Greene, Andress, Carlton, Scofield, Pizarelli, Farlow, Cress, Hall, Jordan(s) ... Breau, Pass, Martino... Remler, Ingram, Tedesco, Ritenour, Robson, Midon, Christian...

that's just the ones that entertained my ears!! Brett Wilmott, Alan De Mause, Mickey Baker, Jody Fisher...

Why pick one flower? enjoy the whole f**kin' meadow!

Phil_aka_Pip

@frankus yes. we can have our favourites, and for different reasons. asking if Jimi Hendrix is better than George Benson is like asking if oranges are better than apples. natch, you may have a preference for one or the other. BTW you missed Barney Kessel from that list of other guitarists

tonyrath

I have the great Guitars series of DVDs with Wes - Barney Kessel - Jim Hall - Tal Farlow etc on 

I like his playing and his time was a great but later players have surpassed him IMO for musicianship and playing technique 

He is not the greatest guitarist - that title belongs to Paco Di Lucia the best fingerstyle jazz guitarist ever 

frankus

Sorry Barney! (and Birelli Lagrene) ... but not Metheny

check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French_jazz_guitarists ; FFS!

I didn't know Nguyen Le classed as Jazz..

I love Wes, he seems like a great musician, great guitarist, great person but making him "the" seems to be missing an opportunity.

mudslide73

richardhomer said:

Beautiful playing. In a different league to most jazzers - lots of soul. SRV's use of octaves in things like Riviera Paradise came straight from WM

via Jimi of course

ESchap

I found Lagrene a few years back ... remarkable talent!

Nobody's mentioned Kenny Burrell ffs ....  B-)

danishbacon

Necroposting just because:

jpfamps

frankus said:

Sorry Barney! (and Birelli Lagrene) ... but not Metheny

check this out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:French_jazz_guitarists ; FFS!

I didn't know Nguyen Le classed as Jazz..

I love Wes, he seems like a great musician, great guitarist, great person but making him "the" seems to be missing an opportunity.

And Kenny Burrell.

midlifecrisis

did someone mention Joe Pass?

guitars4you

Wes and Kenny Burrell are my 2 favourites by a big margin in the jazz world - so much soul, passion and emotion in their playing - Yet annoyingly, or frustratingly, you think you can play what they play and in some cases you can play their licks and tunes, yet somehow it never sounds right - great to be influenced by them, so even if you can't capture their magic you can be influenced by their ideas - many of their chords, licks and ideas you can use to jazz up your own blues ideas, which SRV and R Ford have done (plus others)