Monk Montgomery
American jazz bassist (1921–1982)
William Howard "Monk" Montgomery (October 10, 1921 – May 20, 1982) was an American jazz bassist. He was a pioneer of the electric bass guitar and possibly the first to be recorded playing the instrument when he participated in a 1953 session released on The Art Farmer Septet. He was the brother of jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery and vibraphonist Buddy Montgomery.
Biography
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, into a musical family, Monk had three brothers and a sister. His older brother Thomas played drums, and died at 16. Monk gave his younger brother Wes (1923–68) a tenor guitar when Wes was 11 or 12. The youngest brother, Buddy (1930–2009) played piano and later took up the vibraphone. Their younger sister, Ervena (Lena), also played piano. Monk himself did not take up the double bass until he was 30, after hearing one of Wes' groups perform.
The three brothers released a number of albums together as the Montgomery Brothers, also playing together on some albums credited to Wes.
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This entry incorporates text from “Monk Montgomery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.