Wes Montgomery News

Guitarist Wes Montgomery starts off our week with the beatific beauty of his thumb caressing six strings.

Guitars have never been a major lead instrument in jazz-pianos yes, guitars no. Maybe his phenomenon has something to do with pianos being the major instrument in classical music and guitars not happening so much in English, German, and French music, especially their classical traditions.

This installment of Note For Note features mysterious recordings from a Naptown jazz legend, and a "Best Of" from a long-defunct New Palestine studio which shed light on the history of Hoosier music.

Ask any lay listener to list the most influential jazz saxophonists of the 20th Century and you're likely to come up with a short list including Coltrane, Bird and a few others.

He's played with Charlie "Bird" Parker, Stan Getz, Wes Montgomery, and Joe Henderson, and from 1965 to 1967, he was touring pianist for the legendary Aretha Franklin.

With a lot of sleuthing and a team of experts on the case, long lost tapes of Wes Montgomery have been discovered and restored.

If formal jazz education is a growing part of the music's history and evolution, then there should be a considerable chapter set aside for David Baker.