Wes Montgomery jazz quartet
playing Impressions

Wes Montgomery was one of the great jazz guitar pioneers in the late 50's and early 60's. He had a unique sound and style as his right hand technique employed just the use of his thumb, which created a very mellow tone. He also innovated the use of octaves for guitar solos.

In this performance, you see a classic jazz standard where they play the head (melody) of the song first, then play solos over the chord changes of that song. In jazz most songs change keys often. Impressions really only changes keys twice, from D Dorian to Eb Dorian. Wes' technique is very strong and it is hard to copy his solos. The octave passage that he plays 3/4 of the way through the piece is unbelievable.

Look for more Wes Montgomery on Youtube and the Internet.