Wes Montgomery

Wes Montgomery played the electric guitar with his thumb instead of a pick, and the warm, round, woody tone that resulted became one of the most beloved sounds in jazz. He’d developed the technique practicing quietly at night so as not to wake the neighbors, and what started as a courtesy turned into a signature no one has matched.

He was largely self-taught and couldn’t read music, learning Charlie Christian’s solos note for note off records as a young man working a day job in Indianapolis. When he finally broke through in the late 1950s, fully formed, musicians could hardly believe this fluent, sophisticated player had come out of nowhere.

His trademark was the use of octaves – playing the same line in two registers at once – which gave his solos a thick, singing, instantly recognizable quality. He’d typically build a solo in stages: single notes, then octaves, then full chords, a rising architecture that carried listeners along with it.

Late in his short career he made popular, string-laden records that sold well and drew criticism from purists, but the earlier small-group sides are pure gold, and his influence on every jazz guitarist since is total. He died of a heart attack at 45, the most important guitarist between Charlie Christian and the modern age.