Rick Farris

El Cubano

Sugar Ray Robinson

The Fighter

Jose Napoles

Wilfredo Gomez

Tommy Ryan

Chucho Castillo

Flash Elorde

Evander Holyfield

Baby Vasquez

Max Schmeling

Tex Rickard

Armando Muniz

Randy De La O

Wes Montgomery

HE PLAYED WITH HIS THUMB

I think most of the geniuses are self taught. Or if you want to call them the great ones,sure,go ahead.Wes Montgomery is in that realm. They say Cannonball Adderley saw him in a club in Indianapolis. Got the word out that there was a jazz guitar player who played with his thumb. Played chords as single notes when he soloed. Of course the cats all dug him right away.

I saw him perform with his brothers at a little place on Shelter Island in San Diego called the Mardi Gras.They called themselves The Mastersounds. Before that area got real touristy and they eventually tore down the Mardi Gras to put up a bank. The club was small,not in the black area,but kind of beatnikish. When jazz flowed into that world and was embraced.

Wes Montgomery was the boss with that big Gibson guitar. He had a thick neck and long fingers. You always look at the fingers of the musicians that made the notes with them. Gots to have the fingers or your fighting a losing battle.

Wes would start playing single notes when he'd begin his solo. Then like that,the octave chords would become the line. It was like he was looking around the universe. They once asked him if he planned anything when he'd start playing those chords. It was unique for the time. Planninig? Geniuses don't plan. They react and feel. Gale Sayers never planned a run. Sugar Ray Robinson saw an opening and let his hands go.

The geniuses are instinctive. No text books when it came to their greatest moments. It's good that Wes Montgomery never had a guitar teacher that would have said that you don't play with your thumb.

Roger Esty