Great Jazz Music

Wes Montgomery was always one of my favourite guitar players on the jazz scene. He started playing when he was 20 years old and taking Charlie Christian as his mentor he learned the solos of Charlie note for note.

Wes Montgomery soon learned to play notes and riffs by ear which meant he could listen and learn - not being a music sheet reader was not a problem during his career.

Joe Pass once saisd that there have been only three inivaters on the guitar, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. Other players who have honoured Wes Montgomery are Pat Metheny, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn and many more believe wes Montgomery to have had an influence on their work.

Wes Montgomery would construct his solos and songs in a three tier manner - different musical approaches to the parts of a song - he is credited with innovating the use of playing in double string octaves which he very much made his own sound. Hence the throaty sound of his guitar playing. Listen to "West Coast Blues" for example and you will understand the sound I mean.

Bebop Jazz was invented by miles davis during the fifties. Charlie parker, Theloniuos Monk, Sony Rollins, Milt Jackson and John Coltrane are some of top inovators of this fast and furious style of music.

Bebop is not for everybody but once you get into it and understand where things are going it can be a wild ride through the musical scales of your mind.

The 1939 "Body and soul" recording by Coleman Hawkins was considered an important moment in the beginning of the Bebop discovery when he started to stray from the usual and went into double-time and began to play around with the tune for a short moment. Some hated it and some thought it was cool and began to experiment with the idea.

Charlie Christian's sound was very individual and lent itsdelf well to the idea of Bebop. Asymmetrical phrasing and ,as a guitarist, he began to take control of the phrasing by introducing the motif before the rhythm section introduced the phrase.

If you are one of those musical people who has a strong feeling that you can play music then you are probably right to buy an instrument and start learning the techniques of that particular instrument. Guitars like Kenny Burrell, Piano like Oscar Peterson, trumpets like Miles and most other instruments are suited to the jazz sound. the real music comes from inside and through practice and understanding.

It's good to have an artistic bent and it helps tremendously when learning to play music but think hard about which instrument you think is right for you. Sometimes it's a question of the type of sound that you respond to - like the resonance of the guitar strings or the blare of the trumpet, maybe your neighbours don't like trumpets. But to learn is about practice and constant practice makes perfect.

Below is a selection of books that can help you on your way with beginning to learn theories and chords and progressions to scales and modals etc.