Wes Montgomery's "Fingerpickin'" (1957)
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This is from Wes Montgomery's first recording session 12/30/57, a year or two before he moved from Indianapolis. He plucks and strums entirely with his thumb, which gives him a sinuous tone, and fluent octave and chordal melodies. Soon jazz lovers realized he was the best jazz guitarist.
Comments (14)
I think I know what sinuous tone means.
sinuous: "bending, winding, or curving in and out; wavy; surpentine." ---Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, College Edition (1960)
tone: "quality of musical sound ('he plays with a pleasing tone')" --- A New Dictionary of Music (1961)
It fits
This wouldn;t be the first time you've gently, reasonably cajoled me into listening more closely to the sound a guitarist makes. And each time I'm grateful for having been cajoled. Wes Montgomery was one of the few musical favorites of my father that I could share - otherwise it was the George Melanchrino Strings, et al - but this early outing has a slightly different flavor to it. A little twangier. In fact, I could swear I hear a touch of Chet Atkins in there....
i can not wrap my head around the entire second sentence of this post. the only thing i can think of to say is, how's that again...? thankfully, the posted track sort of explains it. i am always struck with awe by great jazz musicians who are guitar players in particular. thanks, Charles.
Oatmeal, it somehow insinuated its meaning, like the countless words I (we?) try out without being that sure of their meaning.
ivylander: And it won't be the last time you'll catch me cajoling, even wheedling all of you. Sorry to hear about your father's preference for the George Melanchrino Strings. Did he have a copy of 101 Strings Play the Blues? That title led me to imagine George Melanchrino Strings Play the Son House Songbook. It's great you were able to bond with him over Wes Montgomery. In the late 1960s I shared with my parents his Fantasy label LP Wes's Best, and they took me to see Wes Montgomery in person at some little jazz club. I'm guessing the Chet Atkins twang we hear in this track comes more from country guitarists loving jazz (as a break from country simplicity) than jazz guitarists loving country.
poebegone, I realized as soon as I wrote that second sentence that it was problematic, but figured, hey, this is just MOG and not the New Yorker. My thinking was that his thumb makes each note start softer than a flatpick would, causing each note in a melody to sound more connected to the one before it and to the one after it, so that the melody resembles a serpent more than a bunch of separate points. This would be true of his melodies that consist of chords, and also those that consist of parallel octaves. Django Reinhart would also play octave melodies (my invented term). What is an octave melody? If a guitarist uses his or her left forefinger to press one of the thicker (more bass) strings against the fingerboard, then softly leans the bottom of that finger against the adjacent string (thus muting it), uses his or her little finger to press the next (more treble) string a few frets closer to his or her right, and then strums the three strings, the two unmuted strings can be an octave apart. Moving the left hand around like that allows him or her to play a melody consisting of parallel octaves, and nobody has ever done it better than Wes Montgomery. He was also the master of chordal melodies, which are more difficult. Like you, I'm awestruck by how jazz musicians can invent beautiful melodies on the spot that follow a beat and a difficult chord progression.
Spike - I bow to your cajoling, wheedling, patience, understanding, eloquence, even handedness and not least of all your intuitive grasp of the audience you address.
You, sir, are the man!
Oh, and great post ( didn't mean to be so serpentine at arriving at my point!)
Thank you kindly, ye Rumfordian.
aye
So very nimble of hand he was. Tone, phrasing, selection - he had it all.
He died young. The liner notes to this LP said that until he was super-popular, he had a day job as well, and a wife and kids. Usually a wife and kids are suposed to be good for longevity, but maybe not.
Charles, thanks ever so much for taking the time to enlighten me. I misspoke and meant the idea is incredible, not incomprehensible. Still, I learned a lot from your dissection. I actually read (and loved) it shortly after you posted it, but I was held up in Mars (or was it Saturn?) at the time. By the way, MOG is a better read than New Yorker in many respects, not excluding God-like detailed musings. (;
poebegone, thank you for taking the time to share your kind musings. Mars or Saturn? I knew you're on the other side of our planet, but sometimes you hang out on the other side of our solar system? That is so cool!