Wes Montgomery

by Adrian Ingram

(Book). Wes Montgomery was unquestionably the most significant jazz guitarist to emerge during the 1960s. By the '70s and '80s he had, like Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt before him, become a major influence on other guitar players. Elements of his style are discernible in many of today's finest players. Although many musicians acknowledge Wes as one of the finest guitar players of the 20th century, there has been until now a lack of detailed biographical and analytical material. This definitive work is a must for all guitarists and jazz lovers alike.

Genres: Music

140 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I would like to express my gratitude for this book's existence. I am happy to have any biographical information about the great Wes Montgomery. That said, this book is a little disappointing. My problem with the book is that it seemed to lack depth of content. I felt there could have been a lot more research about Wes' life, esp. in what happened between his picking up the guitar and his becoming a guitar legend. I thought there could have been a lot more input from other musicians and guitar players about Wes in favor of the brief blurbs/quotes that were given. I happened to read this book while in the middle of reading Lewis Porter's John Coltrane bio. Porter's book delivers in both musical analysis and scholarly research. I felt the research was a bit lacking in Ingram's book. I understand there probably isn't as much historical material about Wes as there is about Coltrane, so perhaps a direct comparison is unfair. But Ingram's book left me wanting more detail and historical perspective/background.

Further, given that Adrian is someone who can actually play (his ass off!), I was hoping for a lot more analysis of Wes' approach to playing guitar, addressing tunes, chord changes, etc. Adrian's excellent video about Wes' playing is probably what led me to expect this type of analysis in the book. I'm lucky enough to have seen Adrian's video, but the Wes Montgomery biography should not require a book and a video to be complete. And finally, the grammar flubs with the whole "it's vs. its" thing, as one example, got a little distracting at times. But that is admittedly a very minor gripe.

One would hope that this book primes the pump for another scholar to take on a research project and give the Wes bio the treatment it deserves. Which is not to say that Ingram's book isn't an important document that should be required reading for any serious fan of Wes -- and why I only deducted one star in my rating.

[Eric Bur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad to have this book, there is not much in Wes.