Four on Six

Wes Montgomery (electric guitar), Tommy Flanagan (piano), Percy Heath (bass) and Albert Heath (drums). From the album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery (1960).

Wes Montgomery was an American jazz guitarist comparable to Charlie Christian or Django Reinhardt. He began studying guitar self-taught in 1943 playing with his right hand thumb instead of a pick and using octaves and chord blocks. He toured with Lionel Hampton’s big band from 1948 to 1950 and then came back to Indianapolis, his hometown. In order to support his large family he worked in a factory during the day and played in clubs at night, and he recorded an album with his brothers and another with organist Melvin Rhyne.

In 1959 Cannonball Adderley saw him play at a club and was amazed, so the next day he called record producer Orrin Keepnews, who hired Montgomery to work for Riverside Records, with whom he stayed until 1963. His album The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery made him famous in the world jazz and from then on he always could form his own groups.

This theme became a standard, his melody is expressive and he plays it at medium tempo. He begins his solo with a very well distributed and coherent speech in which he carefully links the phrases together. Then he makes his solo using octaves with the same dedication as the previous one and deploying new resources. Next comes Flanagan, playing elegant passages while Montgomery accompanies him below. He is followed by Percy Heath playing a walking also accompanied by Montgomery and after some drumrolls by Albert Heath the group re-exposes the theme fading out.