Wes Montgomery Interview Part 2

group is beautiful as always watching you play we were able with the cameras to get some tight shots on your thumb and and the technique that has set you apart from from other guitarists M there's the story about the guitarist on the west coast who said he spent one whole day trying to slam a cardor on your thumb you know who that was who that Jim Hall Jim Hall speaking of guitarists Jim Hall but this technique which is unschooled and it's pure West Montgomery this technique and what you do with it playing octaves in your solo lines this is what set has set you apart from every other guitarist in life and as I remember the story you telling me many years ago this came about because first of all playing with your thumb rather than a pick was Qui yeah well it didn't uh like uh a piic seems to have more of a piercing sound and it sharper mhm and um well when I first started I started with a pick of course everybody else was starting with a pick and I used to use uh keep my I like for my amplifier to be on because I found out that when you practice without an amplifier for like two months and then you use amplifier you hear more no than you do do notes mhm so I said well I break that habit so I just use all the time but while doing that I would go into the night practicing and um but I forgot I would disturbing neighbors yeah so that was uh very short that it brought to my attention and uh uh so then I thought um well I have to cut down some kind of way but I I Hadi really cut down if I cut down much more I might as well not use it so then I uh set the pick on the top of the amplify and and made it much of a r or sounds softer mhm I said I'll use that until I get where I can play then I'll use a pick but I forgot you have to develop a pick then you learned that you couldn't use a pick that's right because you had learn to play with your thumb that's right and you couldn't use a pick that's right so then I wasn't trying to be one of the best anyway I just play for my own Amusement so I go through all the trouble of develop developing a pick when I can play my I want to play you know now every schooled guitarist in the world knows that it's imp possible to play without a pick and to play that to play as you play well they claim the thumb is the slowest finger operating finger on the hand yeah I think that's why they like classical players use their thumb but not in the same manner right but you get incredible speed yeah well it hurts really yeah well I mean you know and and some kind of way yeah you get incredible speed with your th but this is what has set you apart this and as I say what you do with it the octaves in your solo lines again this was a thing unheard until West Montgomery how' you hit on that well I was tuning up one day and my guitar is always out of tunb well I thought it was because I had a bad guitar at that time bot lemon but even the new one they they just don't stay in tune so it was it was uh laid out like it would be in tune maybe Donald Del but up here within this range it would be out ofune so I used to take the first string and the third string and go like that and find out how close they were together which one goes out they're not tune it up so while doing that I I I ran a scale accidentally I said oh it's not too bad and so then I put them together and ran the scale again only thing I could U figure anything T it was just two notes it's not too much then I was going to run it again and check it out and I missed it I said oh come on you know you don't do it accidentally and makeing then try to do it on intentionally and miss it you know that's turned around the wrong way so I had trouble ever since then after I got so I P the scale I went through then I start I said well I think I'll play A A Melody you know line couldn't play Melody line and every time I when I get one thing accomplished then I couldn't do the next step come on you know two notes come on you know M and I kept on till I got so I said well I'm it's not want to play solo lines with which I couldn't do at that time my hand just get cramps and I take it off the guitar to still be like that I oh it was but you did make it yeah you sure did make it great and when this was first heard I remember the comment I remember the people saying good grief listen to this he's playing solo lines he's playing octaves in Solo lines there was a story of a young guitarist who came to this country as a uh an exchange student going to school in this country and in Europe he was a guitar student mhm he wasn't coming here to study guitar he was coming here to go to the university but back home he was a he was a a guitar student and when he left Europe to come here his guitar teacher in in Europe said if you are ever in a town where West Montgomery is playing go and watch him notice the key word was watch go and watch him and then come back and show me how he does that and I've had so many guitars comment along the same line they listen for instance to your records they hear what you're doing but they can't in their mind hear the fingering that would accomplish this I I had uh I received a lot of letters with um U piece of paper in it draw a guitar neck to find out what finger goes on what string and and how what the process was and at the same time they they used to study me once a month over all the guitar players would get together and they Wonder each one would put his ideas of what I was doing so when I went to Europe we all got together all the top guitar players I guess it's about 24 all around and uh we used the music store basement and we got together and just discuss guitar it was amazing really it was amazing beautiful but the letters you used to get with a chart of the guitar and these were from European mhm yeah cuz they like they got I forget the name of the magazines that they have in Europe something like Don beat over here yeah and uh and it would have questionnaires of different uh guitar players and answers M and what natural uh they re we re magazines over here and uh and they would uh each one would comment about what what they think I was what approach I think I was using and the difference and a lot of them felt that U uh they come to the conclusion out of the whole group that they don't take me as a guitar player oh I'm not a guitar player to them what are you I use it they they consider like what their approach to the instrument they're guitar players yes but I don't use it as I don't I don't play it as a guitar you use as a musical instrument yeah as an instrument to to uh to to to project what I have in mind so I thought that's interesting analogy and and perhaps holds holds some water that's right cuz I don't know anything about the instrument well I mean you know what I mean understand techically I don't want to know anything about it really cuz it's too much that's another feel you find a lot of a lot of fellas they spend more time so well I I don't think I have the right pickup I like to pick up with the the so many screws in for the magnet and some said well I got the wrong bridge and you know it's when we get through still have to play it you know yeah so your your thinking along that line of now for instance we're a good teacher to come along now MH and try to touch what you are doing could destroy completely what West Montgomery is and it reminds me so of a story of Ben Webster who went to a teacher now this was long after Ben Webster was an established star MH in fact it was rather late in in in Ben Webster's life mhm he went to a classical teacher to learn technique MH and it turns out the teacher was an old fan of Ben Websters and you know Ben has this great wide fat breathy tone it sounds like there's as much breath coming around the read as through it that's right that's right and this this teacher was a was a a fan of Ben Webster but when Ben came to him to study technique the teacher said play something for me Ben played for him and the teacher said Mr Webster you do everything wrong but it's beautiful and don't you change anything he wouldn't touch him he refused he said I will not touch what you are doing and For Heaven's Sake don't go to anybody else well I think uh like for instance I got it's a I got a book coming out uh first yeah and it's been so many uh fellas that's interested and knowing um uh what approach I take mhm so musically in a book form this book might explain a lot see because uh there'll be a lot of Fells I won't probably won't run into but the book will probably teach them musically the approach there is a story of the Bumblebee that has frequently been attached to West Montgomery that according to the laws of aerodynamics of wing surface to body weight that it's aerodynamically impossible for the Bumblebee to fly but the bee not knowing this flies West Montgomery is uh flying right is flying just as Unknowing ly as the Bumblebee Wes play something for us uh California nights right California nights great sit down dad West playing is your passport to The World God bless you pleasure thank you for giving us this time today you're you're beautiful and and guard your thumb guard your thumb believe that our program is people in jazz and our man in jazz today has been West Montgomery guitarist by point to the world this is Jim Rockwell good night

Channel: dave gould

Views: 73,889

Keywords: montgomery; wes; brothers, Wes Montgomery (Musical Artist)

Id: Br4SFqOdSsc

Length: 11min 3sec (663 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 07 2014