# Wes Montgomery’s jazz influence continues to shine in Indianapolis: Video, Photos

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2022/03/20/wes-montgomerys-jazz-influence-continues-to-shine-in-indianapolis-video-photos/
- Published: 2022-03-20T16:44:17+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Wes Montgomery’s talent took him around the world, but he always came back to 
Indianapolis.**

Montgomery, born March 6, 1923, is renowned as one of the most influential jazz 
guitarists in history, but he got a late start in music.

It was not until he was 19 that Montgomery first picked up a guitar and taught himself
to play — not with a pick, but his thumb, because it was quieter and did not disturb
his wife and neighbors, said WFIU jazz director David Brent Johnson.

Recent Stories from wrtv.com

“He really liked the sound that he got from playing with his thumb,” Johnson said.“
It did give him a unique tone because most guitarists were playing with their picks.”

![V0002_3896_medium.jpg](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e71324b/
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Provided by Indiana Historical Society, Willis Kirk collection

Patrons enjoy a jazz performance at Henri’s Cafe Lounge, a club located at 408 Indiana
Avenue in Indianapolis owned by Henry Vance. The musicians pictured are Wes Montgomery
on guitar, Willis Kirk on drums, Monk Montgomery on bass, and Buddy Montgomery on
piano.

Throughout the 1950s, Montgomery worked days at Polk Sanitary Milk Company on the
city’s near east side to support his wife and seven children. Then, many times with
his brothers Buddy and Monk, he took his talent at night to the city’s jazz clubs.

“What I wanted to do didn’t matter as much as what I had to do,” Montgomery [told DownBeat magazine](https://downbeat.com/archives/detail/wes-montgomery-back-at-home-on-indiana-avenue)
in 1968.

Montgomery played a starring role in the 1950s Indianapolis jazz scene, along with
musicians such as David Baker, Freddie Hubbard, Slide Hampton and J.J. Johnson. 
Indiana Avenue was the epicenter of the city’s jazz world with more than two dozen
clubs spanning its eight blocks.

“Most of the big, well-known jazz orchestras came to Indianapolis, they came to 
Indiana Avenue,” Thomas Ridley, 99, said. “We had a lot of homegrown musicians, 
very good musicians, who did not want to travel. They stayed here and they performed
in the clubs.”

Ridley has lived in Indianapolis most of his life, aside his time in the military
during World War II. He grew up two blocks away from Indiana Avenue and remembers
seeing Montgomery and fellow jazz greats, such as Duke Ellington, play in its clubs.

“All of them came here. They came to the clubs here,” Ridley said. “There was just
entertainment going on regularly every day.”

Montgomery’s big break nationally came in 1959 when the jazz saxophonist Cannonball
Adderley saw him play at the Missile Room, an after-hours club on Indiana Avenue.
Johnson recounted a story of Adderley unsuccessfully attempting to find a phone 
at 3 a.m. to call a producer at New York’s Riverside Records with a plea to sign
Montgomery to a record deal.

Adderley finally got through the next morning, and, Johnson said, “that really kick-
started (Montgomery’s) career in the jazz world as a name unto himself.”

Montgomery’s influence spread throughout his career. Johnson explained that Montgomery’s
technique for constructing a jazz solo involved starting with single notes and building
up to octaves and chords.

“It ended up having an impact on not just jazz musicians, but pop-rock musicians,
R&B musicians,” Johnson said. “He had a lot of fans in the music world.”

![dc018_59_medium.jpg](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a9db25b/
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Provided by Indiana Historical Society, Flanner House of Indianapolis Collection

With the end of prohibition in the United States, several night clubs and taverns
sprang up along Indiana Avenue after 1933. The Sunset Terrace was one of the many
properties within the area owned by brothers Denver and Sea Ferguson. Indiana Avenue,
in particular, was a hub for jazz activity with clubs such as Sunset Terrace, George’s
Bar and the Cotton Club.

Recognition followed. According to [Montgomery’s obituary in the Indianapolis Recorder](https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=INR19680622-01&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------),
DownBeat named him the best jazz guitarist five times in the 1960s, while Playboy
gave him the honor six times.

Montgomery won two Grammy Awards, including in 1966 for “Best Instrumental Jazz 
Performance” recognizing his album “Goin’ Out of My Head.”

And then, with his album “A Day in the Life” still at the top of the Billboard charts,
he died from a heart attack on June 15, 1968, suffered at his family’s home near
Butler University. He was only 45, and the enduring question is what Montgomery 
might have accomplished had he lived longer.

“I think his reputation would have only grown in whatever he was doing,” Johnson
said. “I think he would have continued to gain commercial popularity. … Certainly,
a joyous player with just a lot of verve in his music, and I think that again accounts
for why he was just getting more and more popular when he died.”

![wes montgomery grave.jpg](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/fdf3a05/
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WRTV photo/Daniel Bradley

Wes Montgomery is buried at New Crown Cemetery in Indianapolis.

Even now, more than a half-century after his death, Wes Montgomery continues to 
fascinate jazz fans.

A 2012 album titled “Echoes of Indiana Avenue” helped produce a revival of interest
in Montgomery, Indiana Avenue and the Indianapolis jazz scene. The album features
previously unknown nightclub and studio recordings from the 1950s.

Montgomery’s story will reach a new audience in 2023. A [documentary produced by Jukeboxer Productions titled “Wes Bound”](http://www.jukeboxerpro.com/wes-bound/)
is planned to coincide with the 100th anniversary of his birth.

The first-ever documentary made about Montgomery will feature footage from 14 reels
of 8mm film provided by his youngest son, Robert. The film is scheduled to debut
on the Bloomington public television station WTIU.

In a trailer for the film, the guitarist Lee Ritenour summed up Montgomery’s standing
in the jazz world: “What Coltrane is to the saxophone, Wes Montgomery is to the 
guitar.”

![p16797coll25_67_medium.jpg](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/
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