A Holiday Theme from Wes Montgomery

 

Happy Holidays from Jazz Guitar Hardball! And what better way to celebrate the holidays than with Wes Montgomery’s solo on the chord changes to the tune Snowfall?! Wes shows us how to capture an elegant and ethereal waltz-like feel on this A-A-B-A holiday classic, written by Claude Thornhill.

 

The strength of this solo lies in its ability to transform standard harmonies and arpeggios into warm and intuitive melodies and themes. The improvisation takes great care to outline the harmony of each chord change, but simultaneously does so in a very melodic manner with careful phrasing and use of rest space. Classic single-note Wes makes the holidays complete!

 

You can listen to Wes’ solo at:

http://www.stevekhan.com/snowfall1.htm

 

For an original performance by Claude Thornhill and his Orchestra, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1K1ijIQEgU