: Oliver Dunskus
: Wes Montgomery His Life and his Music
: Books on Demand
: 9783757833169
: 1
: CHF 7.90
:
: Monografien
: English
: 280
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Following Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery was the third major innovator in jazz guitar. 55 years after his death, we are celebrating his 100th birthday. His outstanding musicality, his virtuosity and his style of playing have been influential to major players like Pat Metheny and George Benson, and to most younger players. Wes Montgomery broadened the vocabulary of jazz guitar like no other player, and it seems that even decades after his passing, his importance is increasing to a level that many players agree he was the most important guitarist in jazz. This is the first biography on Wes Montgomery in over 40 years. It covers details of his family background, his early days as an amateur musician in Indianapolis, reviews of over 50 albums and it includes a full chronological discography.

Oliver Dunskus, born 1962, has been fascinated by Wes Montgomery since many years. His first Wes Montgomery biography was published in Germany in 2015, the English version version followed in 2020. This the 2023 edition on the occasion of Wes Montgomery's 100th birthday.

Biography


1923 1950: The Beginnings


Wes Montgomery was born in Indianapolis on March 6, 1923, the third of five children. Wes ancestors have been traced back into times of slavery, back to 1860 in Floyd County, Georgia.

Indiana Anthropologist Paul Mullins did profound research on Wes Montgomery s ancestors:

In about 1917 Wes father Thomas was probably the first of his family and future in-laws to migrate to Indianapolis. It is unclear specifically why Thomas went to Indianapolis, but he may have gone for labor opportunities in the Haughville neighborhood on the city s west side. He secured work on the eve of the war at National Malleable and Steel Casting, one of several Haughville ironworks.

Mullins further reports Wes father doing his military service in Kentucky 1917-18 and marrying Wes mother Frances Blackman in 1919.

The couple s first child Thomas ( June ) Montgomery Jr. was born in January, 1920, followed by William Howard ( Monk ) in October, 1921; John Leslie ( Wes ) in March, 1923; Charity Frances in June 1925 (she would die in infancy); Ervena Marie in August, 1927; and Charles ( Buddy ) in 1930.1

Wes parents separated early during the great recession and around 1930, Wes moved to Ohio with his father and his elder brothers, while his mother stayed in Indianapolis with the younger children. The family was strongly engaged in church music and Wes mother had a piano in her house.

The first evidence of the Montgomery household s musicality came in 1926, when the Indianapolis Recorder s news column noted that The Blackburn Quartette met at the home of Tom Montgomery Saturday night for rehearsal. The quartet is making a specialty of folk songs. ( ) Ervena Marie Montgomery was living with her mother and brother Buddy through the 1930s and 1940s. ( ) Frances married a foundry worker, Lavester Arrington, in October, 1939. Thomas (Jr.) died in about 1939. When the census taker came to Thomas Montgomery s home at 497