Just shy of 60 years after his passing, few guitarists hold as much reverence as Wes Montgomery. The bebop virtuoso helped take jazz guitar to a whole new level across a changemaking career, and he did it all in an unusual way.
At the time, and even still today, most guitarists struck the strings of their big box guitars with a guitar pick. But Montgomery, chasing a sound later described by Guitar Player scribe Ralph Gleason as a “bolt of lightning,” used his thumb instead.
