Wes Montgomery's Solo on "Ecaroh"

by paul, on 08.28.2011

Here is my transcription (mp3) of Wes Montgomery's wonderful solo on the Horace Silver tune "Ecaroh". I did a particularly bad job of soloing on this tune on a gig recently, and so I learned Wes' solo in an effort to improve on negotiating the changes. As always, hearing a masterful solo like this makes the changes seem much simpler than when you're reading down the tune for the first time.

Since Wes was incapable of playing a bad note, this is obviously a great solo. I love how he mixes some bluesier phrases in with some very pretty lines that really get into the harmony of the tune. Wes is definitely not one to glide over the changes. The second A is kind of interesting, it's hard for me to hear what Melvin Rhyne is doing in the harmony but the repetition Wes does over it clearly works.

Categories: Music