Wes Montgomery (eBook)

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 Grove Street in Columbus in 1940, Monk was a salesman in a coal yard who was recorded as having completed eight grade; Wes was in school and had completed seventh grade.“2

In an article written by John A. Kuri for Just Jazz Guitar, Kuri, who was a friend of Monk Montgomery, describes Wes’ beginnings on the guitar as follows:

“It started for Wes when he was 10 years old. On his way to the movies, Monk met a guy trying to sell his guitar so he’d have enough change to see the show. So, Monk cut a deal for 50 cents and walked away with the 5-string. Later that night, he and Wes set down trying to figure out how to play on it. “This dude from down the block called preach came over the next day and showed us how to tune it. Then he and Wes sat on the front porch and played things like My Dog Has Fleas. Preach knew a few chords, just enough to get along. Wes soaked up everything the dude had to offer. Wes outgrew Preach really fast”. Two years passed and their folks separated. The mother moved back to Indianapolis and the brothers stayed on with the father. Somehow during the shuffling of their lives, the prize guitar was lost. Now fourteen, Monk quit school and began working full-time. Wes saw a guitar in a pawn shop and dragged Monk to look at it This time, Wes didn’t have to wait for someone to show him how to do it.”3

In an interview with Maggie Hawthorne, Monk remembered this moment:

“When I was 9 and Wes was 7, Wes and I moved to Columbus with my older brother June to spend some time with my dad. We ended up staying for 10 years. When Wes was around 8, I remember there was a guy living down the street by the name of Preach O’Bannon. He played a tiple, a sort of five-string guitar4. He used to come around our house because we enjoyed hearing him… He couldn’t do that many changes; all he could do was solo work. But it felt good when he played, he let him hold it any play and showed him a couple of chords, and showed him how to play a couple of chords because he was really interested…

The next thing I remember about Wes and the guitar – he had seen one in a pawn shop for $13. It looked like a brand-new guitar, not a little toy instrument. And he was just excited about this guitar. That was a lot of money, but I remember I had taken $13 to buy this guitar.

Later, I remember another period where every Saturday afternoon there was a contest at the Empress Theater. Before the movie started, all the kids would line up to be in the contest, since everyone who performed got in for free. Now Wes could play, and my older brother June could play drums. I remember I had a guitar and I was strumming as if I was playing. It was a fun thing, because all the other kids were 10 times worse than we were. But to get on stage and perform… it was great. June passed away in his late teens. He was a very good drummer. I remember when he was 17 or 18, Chick Webb came to town with his band and he was there to perform this contest. And June won. He was not what you would call an educated drummer, just a youngster with a natural talent.”5

John A. Kuri has more recollections of Monk’s memories:

“There was a girl in the neighborhood. She lived around the corner and played piano. She was a bit older than Wes. He and I would pass by and hear her practicing – just sitting at the steps of her house and listen to her play. Wes began to take his guitar over to her house and really ventured into music as he played along with her. Wes had the ear, he’d listen to her, to the radio, to whatever he liked. He always knew the key and could play anything.” Monk began laughing from a deep, warm chuckle of his heart as he told me the story of their first band:” We had a guy coming from way the other side of town, Leon Logan. A trumpet player. Now when I say player, he was just a kid who had a trumpet, and that made him a trumpet player. He could play real high notes, and he had a lot of chops. And another guy came along named Jabo Ward. He would dance and clown around while we played. Then somehow, he came up with a couple of drums and we formed a band.” Wes was about fourteen then and they decided to participate in an amateur contest at the movie theater on a Saturday afternoon. The prize was the price of an admission for a matinee. “We must have been a sight with Jabo doubling over between drums and dancing, clowning around me playing bass, Leon going high and screaming with those iron chops and Wes playing that twelve-dollar guitar. We won that contest once, but we sure tried enough times.” When Wes was 17, he and Monk decided to leave their dad and live with their mother. “We didn’t want to stay with our dad any longer because things were really rough. His folks had been slaves. He had no education and could barely write his name. He’d run away when he was 9 and learned off the streets. He didn’t understand Wes and the music thing, it just wasn’t good. So, we wanted better lives. But I tell you, surviving those early years together bonded for life.”

Thomas passed away from pneumonia when Wes was sixteen, and Monk had to support the family by working part-time. In the forties, the economy had recovered. Indianapolis had become a city with a strong economy so in 1940 the boys moved back to their hometown. Monk remembers Wes learning to play his guitar quite fast, which contradicts the widespread opinion that Wes only started playing as an adult.

Indiana had become state capital in 1820. A railway interchange was added in 1847 and thanks to a local source of natural gas, it turned to an important economic center where several factories were in need of manpower, which attracted the black community from the south – just like Wes’ father - during the great migration. In his book about the history of Indiana Avenue6, Thomas Ridley Jr. mentions businesses owned by African-Americans as early as 1865. Indiana Avenue quickly became a center for the black community with dance-halls, movie theaters, brothels, all of which offered opportunities for skilled musicians to find work. Many of these musicians had attended Crispus Attucks High School. The Montgomery Brothers, J.J. Johnson, Freddie Hubbard and Slide Hampton had all come from the pool of musicians created by the school’s skilled music teachers.

So, contrary to what is written in most sources, Wes had not started to play the guitar at eighteen, but according to his brother Monk he was actually the first of the three remaining brothers to pick up an instrument. But Wes was eighteen when he was inspired to play jazz, first hearing Charlie Christian’s Solo Flight with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, which had been recorded in 1941.

“I started in 1943, right after I got married. I bought an amplifier and a guitar around two or three months later “, Wes told Ralph J. Gleason in an interview 1961: “I used to play a tenor guitar but it wasn’t playing, you know. I didn’t really get down to business till I got the six-string, which was like starting over to me. I got interested in playing the guitar because of Charlie Christian. Like all other guitar players! There’s no way out! I never saw him in my life … he was so far ahead!” 7

Inspired by Christian, Wes went into a pawnshop and bought an electric guitar and an...