George Benson, Wes and John Coltrane.

I had hung around him and John Coltrane at one point at a hotel in um Buffalo New York and it was um Elvin Jones birthday and uh I brought my new record I just recorded called the new boss guitar actually it wasn't called the new it was called Boss guitar no it's called new boss guitar cause Forget About Boss guitar Montgomery covered that many years ago so I said man I just got my test pressing man and he said go get it bring it down we brought down we put it on there it was an actual record you know uh uh Vine so we put it on now is when I think about it it's embarrassing man I didn't even know what but it's all I had I was still 20 years old yeah and uh John Coltrane said yeah Montgomery said yeah man I like it man I think it's fantastic then he said I just got my new test pressing in too he said would you like to hear it I said yeah he went up and got it he played um around midnight I said oh my God yeah I don't know where the ghost is and kill myself and I'm gonna start practicing for the next 10 years it was so magnificent man he inspired so many people just by touching the guitar and and although he didn't overdo lines he didn't Fisher chops and all that stuff you know and technique you know his approach to Harmony in theory was so relaxing and so inspiring and so uh what they call that word with the word emotional yeah I had to sit back and listen to his approach and say what is it that makes him so wonderful so when he passed away a few years later 1968 they had asked me if I would because he was scheduled to play in my hometown Pittsburgh Pennsylvania at a great big place to know 20 000 people I said man no way I could do that so why not I said because there's only one West Montgomery and I'm not going to pretend that I can sit in and cover for West Montgomery even if he asked me to do it himself I would not do it so I did not do it I understand I'm glad I didn't hmm hang around my neck for all my life I tell you he played with his brothers and they were just um you know uh I was a kid so it didn't mean anything but now you know phenomenal really uh he was just uh it's one of the best groups I've ever heard in my life I have not since seeing them way back in 1960 still 61. I have not seen anything better than that oh this sounded better to me than that group those guys who were playing by ear basically and at that time uh buddy was playing Vibes he sure was tore the place up man I said man is this what jazz music I am I'm never gonna be able to play that I guess you know but you never know uh the inspiration came when Montgomery started mentioning me to after he became a superstar he started mentioning me to his uh the record company owner Herbert oh here's what it'll take for today in France during the uh remember this is only a few years after the world war and yeah well France took quite a hit from the Germans so this Festival was only like 10 to 12 years after that so there's still a lot of feelings there so I had these artists who used to draw figures and and make statements on the sidewalk of France which went for like a mile so they had a thing that said Charlie Christian is the greatest guitar player of all time policeman came by and said he rich I want that erase immediately he said it in France I said what they talking about he said he's forcing him to be arrested at the wiser and put he said unless you put Wes Montgomery up there that's the important to put West Montgomery on the sidewalk remember the three greatest guitar players at that time were considered with Django Reinhardt ly Christian and West Montgomery and the police made them changes oh listen we made them change yeah and it was serious they're gonna put him in jail that's too it ain't that serious man the guy told me he said yes it is George this is the truth what's Montgomery is the greatest guitar player in the world man well teach me something oh so anyway we did that that year 50 years later by that time I become a superstar in Europe I had 26 smash records sold 60 or 70 million albums 10 Grammy Awards so they saw that video of me with Jack McDuff in 1964 in the French Riviera is not bad you see he looks familiar who is that because I only weighed you know I was 50 pounds lighter right because he looked for me the guy said he looks a little bit like judgment we know it can't be judgment sometimes so let's look on the tape and see who it is and they said it is George Benson man that's John Manson so the next year was George Benson day I headlined the festival 50 years later on the French Riviera

Channel: Further Wes Bound

Views: 9,138

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Id: hN2vYDbw6_4

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023