How High The Moon

My dad worked as a janitor at the US Steel Plant in Youngstown, Ohio for forty years. Jesse Bell, one of the men he supervised, was a jazz aficionado. We’d bring Jesse some fish we caught (My dad and I loved to fish. I still do.) and Jesse would give me albums; that’s how I first heard Wes Montgomery when I was ten years old boy. That stroke of luck opened my ears at the most impressionable time of my guitar learning. It was thrilling when Wes would appear on TV! This is my interpretation of how Wes might’ve played How High the Moon in his later years. I overdubbed the ES175 for some chordal accompaniment in the style of how Wynton Kelly might’ve played on piano. Wes’ photo hangs right by the console in my studio. I quote him whenever I play. He is my all time favorite, so much so that I almost didn’t include this song for fear I might not be able to do it justice!

Technical notes: I’m playing an Epiphone Casino with heavy gauged flat wound strings using my thumb. 1967 Fender Princeton is mic’d with a 1950’s Shure Sonodyne 51.