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From the very beginning, Wes Montgomery appeared to hear things in a different way on the guitar! Rather than going after the regular “plectrum” or “pickstyle” approach, he opted for a thicker, warmer tone made by striking the strings with the meat of his right hand thumb. He developed an uniquely personal sound in his single note guitar soloing with this unorthodox, seemingly not possible physical guitar playing approach. His tone and methodology confounded and enthralled the guitarists and audiences of his day. One glance at any video clip concert of Wes Montgomery is more than telling and always continues to astonish guitarists today. Fortunately, for aspiring jazz guitar players there are collection books still available of jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablature for many of Wes’s guitar solos.

Wes Montgomery rested his right hand with the fingers unfolded on the top of the guitar and the pickguard edge right behind the neck pickup. The thumb played the strings with a relaxed stroke originating from the second joint. The right hand thumb tip was cocked at the first joint at a reverse angle, that has led quite a few to believe that Wes was double jointed. Wes utilized downstrokes predominantly but could also perform prolonged complex lines with alternating down-up strokes when desired.  Read more...

One of the most enjoyable facets of the guitar style of Wes Montgomery was his jazz chord technique! He had a natural born ability for chord melody solos and was able to seamlessly combine improvised block chording into his solo guitar playing – as in “Cariba”, “Sundown”, “Missile Blues” and a great number of others that are still available in numerous collection books of jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablature. His harmonic conception was “piano thinking” applied to the guitar and at the time seemed impossible – particularly when thinking of the ease and smoothness with which he performed his chord passages even at break neck speeds! Wes simply heard it that way and again, redefined all of the rules.

Wes was equally adept at harmonizing and playing a melody (the head of a song) with his block chord approach, typically building unusual and downright peculiar voicings to the harmonic framework of the song! Instances in point are the ear catching performances heard in the Broadway standard “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” and his original composition “Mi Cosa”. He played his chord phrases with a thumb strumming technique equivalent in articulation to his octave playing.

Wes Montgomery was a master of melodic invention – having the technique, emotional content, taste, and originality to turn any piece into an ear catching musical experience. As an improviser Wes was particularly concerned with motif development, however in a very natural and instinctive way. He was the consummate story teller – leading an enthralled audience in chorus after chorus of inspired playing – revealing a motif here, developing it later, introducing a blues move, and after that seasoning it with bebop modernism and chromatic tension.  Read more...

Jazz guitar performer George Benson was born March 22, 1943 in Pittsburgh, Pa. The precocious youngster found early on that he possessed a fine singing voice and in fact made his public debut at age four at a Fourth of July show, leading to his nickname – “Little Georgie Benson”. Hearing the jazz guitar recordings of jazz guitarist Charlie Christian with the Benny Goodman Band a few years later ignited his longing to perform on guitar. There were no collection books of jazz guitar tabs or jazz guitar tablature in those days for George to study and learn from. His stepfather, Tom Collier, who also had desires of performing on guitar professionally owned an electric guitar that the youthful George coveted. Because his hands were too little at that point however, he had to settle for an ukulele instead.

By the time he was eight, Benson was rewarded with a very inexpensive guitar by his stepfather who acknowledged his talent. A nearby talent scout noticed George’s talents after seeing him play guitar on street corners and drove him to New York city. At the age of ten, Little Georgie Benson was signed to a short term record contract with RCA Victor Record Company’s “X” label and recorded four sides of R&B music which included Ray Charles’s “It Should Have Been Me”. Only one single, “She Makes Me Mad”, was released and the event helped add to Benson’s notoriety back home, but his strict stepfather saw the whole thing as too much of a distraction and took George’s guitar away!  Read more...

The worldwide acclaim of audiences and music critics alike has established Laurindo Almeida (1917-1995) as one of the industry’s truly excellent classical guitar performers, and yet he is also well remembered as a featured soloist with the Modern Jazz Quartet on two critically acclaimed worldwide tours. From Beethoven and Bach to Bossa Nova, Broadway hits and jazz standards — all of these kinds of guitar music are an aspect of his apparently limitless performance repertoire. Many of Laurindo’s guitar arrangements are available in his collection books of jazz guitar tabs and jazz guitar tablatures. Most significantly, he did it all with outstanding skill and artistry.

Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, he received his earliest musical education on the piano from his mother who was a classical pianist. His sister Maria was the family guitar student, but it was Laurindo who was to master the classical guitar and eventually become a virtuoso on the instrument as well as one of Brazil’s most highly regarded musicians.

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Leaving a successful profession in live concert and radio performance in Brazil, he relocated to Hollywood, California in 1947 where he spent a year doing concert events and movie work. But jazz lured him to the orchestra of the progressive jazz musician Stan Kenton. He introduced to Kenton, and the world, his new and innovative conception, Bossa Nova. His world premier presentations of Pete Rugulo’s “Lament” and his own “Amazonia” at the Chicago Opera House and Carnegie Hall drew far reaching acclaim! Today’s jazz guitarists are still guided by the progressive ideas he introduced in the course of the Stan Kenton years.  Read more...

Many independent musicians and performers nowadays may not consider going to a pro recording studio. What with the budget home recording systems and equipment available now, you can do a lot at home if you have to time and ears to develop your skills as a music producer/sound engineer. And of course a lot of music is produced that requires no instruments at all – music can be made with only software instruments and samples. This article, however, is aimed at those who use their voice and/or music instruments to make their music and want some demo tracks, get their music online or get that dream gig.

And if you want a convincing demo or some pro sounding recordings in order to get a gig, get airplay and get your music heard you may have to consider investing in some time in a pro recording studio. Basically if you want to a professionally sounding product then call in the professionals ie. record in a studio.

Investing in studio time does not have to be exceedingly expensive. There are a few basic ways to save studio time and therefore come out with more polished tracks. These may seem obvious but as a studio engineer, I see these mistakes being made and advise clients prior to a recording to be aware of these stumbling blocks.

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