After Hours

Wes Montgomery. Windy

There are very few videos of Wes in action on the YouTubes, but here's one. True, it's not too terribly interesting, but you gotta admit, that is one super-hip tux. This also gives you a pretty good view into Wes' playing. He was all about playing octaves, and that's why his pop stuff is so pleasant. OK, so he's performing a tune by those hippies, the Association. It's not jazz. In fact, his last four years (he died in 1968) were spent doing pop covers for A&M. By the way, that's Herb Alpert himself who does the intro and outro. Herb was Wes' producer during those A&M years, so naturally he had to say that Wes was his favorite guitarist and so forth. But his departure to pop left a void in jazz that could only be filled by imitators. It wasn't until the seventies that jazz guitarists became prominent again. But I don't blame him for getting away from jazz. It's a hard life. He could make way more money playing pop covers. And then he died, so I guess it's all a moot point.