Wes Montgomery -Here's That Rainy Day - London 1965

Wes was one of the first Jazz guitarists I ever heard. I had no idea what he was doing- I usually figure everything out by ear - but its hard to do when the person you are trying to imitate is playing by ear as well! For those of you not familiar with Jazz - traditional Jazz consists of a large catalog of "standards" - these are mostly theme songs or show tunes of some kind. Since everyone plays the standards - for those of us who care -we get to see the true character of an artist.

Wes is different - hes guitar work is complex - but nowhere near a "Joe Pass". He has great instincts and he can play the blues. One of the nice things about Wes is that hes not playing the blues every time he picks up the guitar - something some of the sadder sounding Jazz musicians lack!

This ones called "Here's That Rainy Day" - beautiful.. Fast forward straight to 2:00 if you want to hear Wes play lead :)