Courtesy of the Montgomery Family

Breaking NewsWes Bound lands a presenting station and fiscal agent

Check out the new trailer, password “Wes”

He is on top of the heap, considered in more than one article to be the greatest jazz guitarist of all time. He is Wes Montgomery, a musical genius who couldn’t read a note but could compose beautiful songs and play others’ work with dazzling complexity and simple soulfulness.

He’s in the DownBeat magazine Hall of Fame, and was its Readers’ Poll favorite guitarist throughout most of the 1960s. He’s a Grammy winner, too. Not only do the fans love him, fellow musicians are in awe. That includes other jazz greats such as George Benson, Lee Ritenour and Pat Metheny. But he also dazzled and influenced rock and rollers, including Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend and the Doors’ Robbie Krieger.

But who was the man behind the instrument and what–beside impressive record sales–made him so different from other jazz legends? And why, oh why, did he leave us so soon, just as his career was peaking?

Jukeboxer Productions will solve the mysteries of Wes Montgomery as we begin production on what will be the first-ever film documentary on this quiet legend. Wes’s family, including his wife, Serene, and son, Robert, have endorsed this project and they’re working with us to bring the Wes Montgomery story to the widest possible audience.

We’ll talk to family members about why he got such a late start learning the six-string guitar and how he mastered it in such a short time. We’ll hear the real story about “the thumb,” his unusual way of plucking the strings. We’ll show what the clubs looked like where he first played and was “discovered” by jazz great Cannonball Adderley. And we’ll let other musicians show you why what Wes did was so revolutionary in the playing of a guitar. One jazz guitarist named his son for Wes. At least two guitarists were inspired to write songs honoring their hero.

What about Wes Montgomery makes the jazz guys jump and the rockers reel? We’ll show you and let you HEAR for yourself.

Just as Wes reached the apex of his popularity, he encountered criticism for “going commercial.” Yep, we’ll dig into that, too. It started in the summer of 2019, with a projected release of 2023.

The same team that brought you the first bio documentary on the early life of Kurt Vonnegut will show you and tell you the story of a prolific Midwestern musician with a family-first work ethic who changed how jazz music fans listen to the guitar. Just like the tribute song by Lee Ritenour, Jukeboxer Productions is now Wes Bound.