Wes Montgomery · Spotify · Courtesy of Spotify
Wes Montgomery
Sign in to saveAlso known as John Leslie Montgomery
American jazz guitarist (1923–1968)
OverviewAI-generated
Wes Montgomery, born John Leslie Montgomery, was an American jazz musician and guitarist. He was born in Indianapolis and died there in 1968 from a myocardial infarction. His career began in 1947, and he worked within genres including jazz, hard bop, smooth jazz, and jazz fusion. He was also associated with big band and jazz pop styles.
Montgomery recorded for several labels, including Riverside, Verve Records, Pacific Jazz Records, and A&M Records. He was a member of the African American ethnic group and spoke English. His family included his relative Anthony Montgomery. He is recognized as a composer and musician who played the guitar.
Synthesized by Vinony from 28 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, MusicBrainz, Last.fm. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Male
- Origin
- United States
- Active from
- 1923
- Active to
- 1968
Discography
Member of
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 824,011
- Total plays
- 10,977,626
Tags
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. He is widely considered one of the major jazz guitarists, emerging after such seminal figures as Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian and influencing countless others, including George Benson, Kenny Burrell, Royce Campbell, Grant Green, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Howe, Russell Malone, Pat Martino, Pat Metheny, Lee Ritenour, Randy Napoleon, and Emily Remler. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Wes+Montgomery">
Key facts
- Born
- John Leslie Montgomery , ( 1923-03-06 ) March 6, 1923, Indianapolis, Indiana , U.S.
- Died
- June 15, 1968 (1968-06-15) (aged 45), Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.
- Genres
- Jazz
- Occupation
- Musician
- Instrument
- Guitar
- Years active
- 1947–1968
- Labels
- Pacific Jazz , Riverside , Verve , A&M
- Website
- wesmontgomery .com
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Family name
- Montgomery
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Indianapolis
- Place of death
- Indianapolis
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- music
- Genre
- hard bop
- Instrument
- guitar
- Record label
- A&M Records
- Official website
- wesmontgomery.com
- Image
- Wes Montgomery (1960s Verve publicity photo with Gibson L-5 CES).jpg
Show 10 more facts
- date of birth
- 1925-03-06
- date of death
- 1968-06-15
- cause of death
- myocardial infarction
- manner of death
- natural causes
- name in native language
- Wes Montgomery
- start of work period
- 1947-00-00
- birth name
- John Leslie Montgomery
- Commons category
- Wes Montgomery
- relative
- Anthony Montgomery
- ethnic group
- African Americans
via Wikidata · CC0
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
John Leslie "Wes" Montgomery (March 6, 1923 – June 15, 1968) was an American jazz guitarist. He is most known for his unusual technique of plucking the strings with the side of his thumb and for his extensive use of octaves, which gave him a distinctive sound. Montgomery often worked with his brothers Buddy (Charles F.) and Monk (William H.), as well as organist Melvin Rhyne. His recordings up to 1965 were oriented toward hard bop, soul jazz, and post bop, but around 1965 he began recording more pop-oriented instrumental albums that found mainstream success. His later guitar style influenced jazz fusion and smooth jazz.
Early life and education
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Wes Montgomery” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.