Wes Montgomery - Round Midnight
Continuing our deep dive into guitar-piano jazz ensembles, here is a
beautiful version of the Thelonius Monk composition Round Midnight
recorded by Wes Montgomery.
Here is the amazing life story of John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March
6, 1923 – June 15, 1968). A self-taught musician, Wes never learned to
read music. He picked up a guitar at age 20 after hearing Charlie
Christian. He never planned to be a musician, always holding a day job
while he played gigs at night. Five years later at age 25 he was tapped
to tour with Lionel Hampton. This lasted two years, but Wes had a wife
and kids and hated flying, so he spent the next 10 years playing gigs
around his home town of Indianapolis.
Wes
and his brothers moved to California in 1957, and his career began to
take off. He recorded his first album as a leader in 1960, and went on
to record 22 albums(!) before he died of a heart attack in 1968.
This video is from the European tour that Wes did in 1965. Here he is with
Wes Montgomery, guitar
Harold Mabern, piano
Arthur Harper, bass
Jimmy Lovelace, drums
Harold Mabern, piano
Arthur Harper, bass
Jimmy Lovelace, drums
No comments:
Post a Comment