The Note-For-Note Transcription of the Wes Montgomery DVD
An interesting idea from Greatest Guitar Books author Shawn Persinger: apparently, copy stores will put a spiral binding on any book for you for a few dollars (Scroll down to see 3/20 blog post). It’s not pretty, but it’s practical, especially for use on music stands.
It’s also great thrill to see the Wes book displayed next to Kenny Werner’s great work, “Effortless Mastery.” Nice idea, Shawn!
Today marks the 90th anniversary of Wes’ birth. For 625 Alive, I interviewed the excellent Harold Mabern, Wes’ pianist for the ’65 tour. Mabern had some great reflections in his time with Wes, including some insight into Wes’ practicing:
TF: Have you heard that quote where Wes says something like, “I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat?”
HM: Well, I think I heard that quote too, yeah. But no, he practiced. He had a sense of humor too, you know? But he was always practicing. I know for a fact he was always practicing. I’d go out and come by his room and hear him, and I wouldn’t disturb him. He put a lot of time on the instrument.
Mabern also spoke of what Wes was like as a bandleader:
HM:…He was not greedy at all. He was not greedy money-wise. He was not greedy musically speaking. He was a great, great human being. So that’s why when you see that tape, those things we did, that’s why the music probably sounds so good because everybody was on the same page trying to do the right thing, and it comes through the music…
The trio begins a new Thursday residence at Chicago’s Blokes and Birds this week. We’ll be there on Thursdays starting March 7. 
Very happy to announce that 625 Alive has been selected for a new publication: “The 50 Greatest Guitar Books” by Shawn Persinger. We’ll have more details as Shawn’s hits the shelves soon.
Thank you to Andy’s jazz club for another great run. We’ll be there for the remainder of this month (February), Thursday nights from 7-11PM. 11 E. Hubbard St. Chicago.
We’ve moved to Thursdays at Andy’s jazz club in Chicago. We’ll be there for November and December (no performance on Thanksgiving.)
9PM-1AM, 11 E. Hubbard St. Chicago.
Our quartet will be performing at Chicago’s Andy’s jazz club Tuesday nights this September. Sets are at 9PM, 10:30PM and 12AM. It’s a fun band of great musicians.
Admission is normally $10, but only $5 if you join our mailing list.
11 E. Hubbard St, Chicago, IL. (Valet parking is available two doors to the east at Shaw’s)
Our trio is playing Wednesdays this summer through August 8 at the Shedd’s terrific series, Jazzin’ at the Shedd from 5-9:30PM. For directions, pricing and other information, please visit the Shedd’s website.
This year’s Gene Harris Coming Home, Coming Together concert is set for June 24. I’m very happy to once again be a part of this great series.
We’ve now shipped to South Africa as international sales continue. Welcome!
Thank you for this terrific review, “Git-crazy!”
From Amazon.com:
BUY THIS BOOK NOW!, March 16, 2012
Tim Fitgerald has taken on a monumental task and succeeded in adding a new classic into the jazz guitar library. Wes Montgomery’s BBC performances are meticulously annotated and now available to everyone. An incredible book. A lifetime of study, yet you will gain insight into Wes’ phenomenal playing in just a few moments of effort. Every note is here. An amazing job of transcribing and a great reference. If you love Wes, you MUST get this book. Buy 2 and give one to a friend. Really, top notch ALL THE WAY. Buy it now, you will be glad you did!
If by chance you haven’t heard, some newly found early recordings of Wes have been released. Here’s a review from AllAboutJazz.com.
Are you a teacher of jazz guitar? We are now offering a special deal to give you a copy of the Wes book to use in your curriculum and lessons.
Please contact us by email for more details.
We’ve shipped our first book to Romania. Welcome and thanks!
Our residency on Tuesday nights at Andy’s jazz club in Chicago is continuing into the fall. Please join us!
Tim Fitzgerald Trio featuring vocalist Sarah Marie Young
Tuesday nights
Andy’s Jazz Club
11 E. Hubbard St. Chicago, IL
Mention Tim’s mailing list for a half price admission of $5. 9PM-1AM
We’ve now shipped our first order to Finland. Welcome and thank you!
I’m really pleased to share this review by the veteran transcriber Wolf Marshall. (I first read Wolf’s transcriptions back in the 80′s when he was the featured transcriber for the most popular guitar magazines of the time.) Thank you both to Wolf and to Vintage Guitar for this lovely review!
Just heard the news that 625 Alive will be reviewed in the newest issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine! I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s supposed to hit newsstands soon. Please feel free to send me an email if you already have a copy — I’m very curious and excited to hear what they have to say.
I’ve received several messages from people wondering where they could hear our group play. We have a nice gig coming up soon at Andy’s in downtown Chicago.
Tim Fitzgerald Trio Feat. Sarah Marie Young
11 E. Hubbard St
Chicago, IL
Friday, Nov. 26, 2010
5-8:30 PM
$10 ($5 if you mention the Tim Fitzgerald email list)
We’ve now shipped to the Caribbean for the first time. We would like to send a warm welcome to the island of Curacao. What a pleasure it is to connect with jazz guitarists and Wes Montgomery fans from around the globe.
I’m very happy to write that the book has been selling well around the world.
We’ve now shipped books to the following countries outside the US:
Italy
France
Portugal
Switzerland
Denmark
Canada
Austria
United Kingdom
Australia
Netherlands
South Korea
Sweden
Japan
Spain
Germany
I’ve been getting a lot of great feedback about the interview in the book with Harold Mabern. Harold was Wes’ pianist for several years and is the pianist for the jazz 625 concert.
When I interviewed Harold for the book, I had a chance to ask him about what it was like to work with Wes, both as a musician and as a person. Harold offered insight in Wes’ practicing habits and also talked about how they worked together.
I’ve decided to post the whole interview to the web. Please keep the comments and feedback coming.
I’ve had many inquiries about guitar lessons lately. Yes, I do teach private guitar lessons in addition to doing clinics.
I customize each lesson plan depending on the student’s goals and experience level. I’ve found that applying Barry Harris’ bebop method to guitar is one of the best ways to understand Wes’ harmonic approach.
I teach out of my home in Chicago’s Gold Coast/Old Town neighborhood. There’s a little more information up at Tim-Fitzgerald.com (Click on “lessons” at the bottom of the home page). And of course, please feel free to email me with any questions.
I’ll be teaching a second clinic at the 2010 Frank Mantooth Jazz Festival near to Chicago. The newly added clinic will be on the art and practice of transcribing. I hope to introduce the students to the importance of transcription and to offer some practical tips along with some motivation to dive in.
I’m looking forward to this new clinic as well as the guitar masterclass. Many thanks to Nic Meyer for the opportunity!
Click here for more information about the fest and a full list of clinicians.
Fellow jazz guitarist Torsten Meise has created a terrific source for Wes Montgomery information. Torsten publishes the blog in the German language, but Google translation works well for those of us who don’t speak German.
The site uncovers rarely heard tracks and photos, and Torsten adds helpful and insightful commentary.
The site (in German) is wesmontgomery.de. Here is the site translated into English through Google translation.
(To translate any site, go to translate.google.com and enter the URL, or use “translate this page” from the results page after a search.)
The original Jazz 625 concert has been released on DVD several times and also often appears on YouTube.com, though usually without rights.
The concert is about 35 minutes. Stefan Grossman and his company Vestapol are the official US distributors of the footage, which is divided up onto two separate DVDs.
Here are links to the DVDs on Stefan’s site:
http://guitarvideos.com/dvd/13009dvd.htm
http://guitarvideos.com/dvd/13033dvd.htm
Each link has information about which songs are on which DVD. You can also purchase the DVDs from the site.
ETA: Torsten Meise from WesMontgomery.de has written with some additional information for Europeans and others with interest in the PAL format:
“PAL-versions of the Jazz-Legends-DVDs are available through their British store http://guitarworkshopuk.com — maybe that’s interesting for your European customers.”
I’ll be doing a guitar masterclass at the Frank Montooth Jazz Festival this coming February at New Trier High School near Chicago.
It looks like a great program this year. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra is featured, along with some terrific clinicians.
http://www.ntjazz.com/Jazz_festival/2010/Clinicians/Default.htm
I’m very happy to announce that the book is featured in November’s issue of Just Jazz Guitar Magazine — the 15th anniversary issue.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Just Jazz Guitar, it’s a terrific magazine with great interviews, lessons and reviews. I highly recommend it.
They excerpted part of the book, and I wrote some new text to accompany the excerpt. To see the cover and table of contents, click here or visit justjazzguitar.com and click on “current issue.”
We’ve now added some pages of the book to the website. On the “Details” page of the website, you can now find a sample of the analysis, head and solo to Wes’ original tune Jingles.
We’re going to be adding a sample page or two of the Wes Montgomery book to this website. What part of the book would you like to see here? Any particular tunes — Jingles, Full House, Twisted Blues, West Coast Blues?
I’d definitely like the sample to show the tabulature (TAB), since many people email to verify the book includes TAB as well as standard notation.
We can now add the Netherlands to the list of countries where we’ve shipped books!
Jazz guitarists and Wes fans from around the globe continue to find this site. We now have shipped books to Japan, Denmark, South Korea, Canada, England and Spain.
It’s a real pleasure to connect with these musicians and fans. Please keep the emails coming.
I’ll be appearing this Sunday evening at the Chicago Jazz Fest to play a bit and talk about Wes and the book. Look me for me at the Chicago Jazz Magazine booth from 5:15-6 PM, Sunday Sept 6, 2009.
Come say hello, hear some tunes and check out the book in person!
One the great things about having done this book is getting to connect with so many warm and talented people along the way — from the greats like Harold Mabern to incredibly hip business people like Laurie Goldstein (president of Taggie Music) to fellow musicians and Wes fans from around the globe.
I thought I’d use this space to occasionally mention a new friend, starting with New York bassist Phil Palombi.
Phil is an outstanding straightahead bassist, but we first connected about his experience writing a Scott LaFaro book. Phil was very generous sharing his knowledge of the whole process, including copyright law, marketing and distribution.
And most importantly, Phil’s Scott LaFaro book is a musical treat. Incredibly accurate and well written. A must have for jazz bassists. Check it out here
I’ve been getting great feedback about the book’s interview with pianist Harold Mabern. So I thought I’d begin publishing excerpts form the interview on the site.
Harold and I were discussing Wes’ process for showing the band new tunes and arrangements:
Tim Fitzgerald: No lead sheets, obviously.
Harold Mabern: There weren’t any sheets. He couldn’t write any sheets. The sheet was what he played.
TF: Did Wes ever talk about not being able to read music?
HM: No, never came up. He just played his guitar and practiced all day. Or most of the day.
TF: He did practice a lot?
HM: Oh yeah, He practiced a lot. Yeah, man. He’d be in his room… He used to practice a lot.
TF: Do you know what he worked on?
HM: Just some things. Sometimes it would be a tune, then other times it would be some of the things with the octaves and stuff like that. Different things on different days. Whatever he felt he needed, he wanted to work on.
TF: Have you heard that quote where Wes says something like, “I never practice my guitar. From time to time I just open the case and throw in a piece of raw meat?”
HM: Well, I think I heard that quote too, yeah. But no, he practiced. He had a sense of humor too, you know? But he was always practicing. I know for a fact he was always practicing. I’d go out and come by his room and hear him, and I wouldn’t disturb him. He put a lot of time on the instrument.
I’m happy to report that word of the book is spreading to Europe and Asia. We’ve had recent orders now from Denmark, Japan and South Korea as well as Canada.
What a pleasure is to connect with musicians and Wes fans from around the globe. It’s great to hear from you — please keep the emails coming!
I’m lucky enough to have a feature in this month’s DownBeat magazine! They asked me to do a Master Class based on the transcriptions in the book.
Don’t worry, TAB fans! Though there wasn’t enough space in DownBeat to include TAB, all the solos and examples in the book include TAB.
Please feel free to let me know what you think of the article, either here, through email or through Facebook (find me at Facebook.com/timfitzgeraldmusic)
Thanks to all who have been writing with warm comments about the book. Please feel free to keep them coming — I’m collecting quotes and blurbs to add to this site in the near future!
I’m happy to announce the book has finally arrived and the first books are being shipped today!
The book is scheduled to arrive in Chicago on Monday or Tuesday of next week and the website is now accepting pre-orders. (We put “within two weeks” for the arrival date on the purchase page in case of any last minute shipping delays, but I’m hoping to start shipping on Tuesday.)
The advance copies of the book look great. Heavier than I expected — almost a pound each. Look for a sample page of the book on the website soon.
Just a few more days until the book arrives! Just finishing up the website now and starting to schedule some book release concerts for the spring.
I’m excited to hear that a buzz for the book is starting to grow. We got some good news last week that the book will be featured in a review in DownBeat magazine! Stay tuned for more info on that front!
