The Surrey with the Fringe on Top (Wes Montgomery’s version)

Wes Montgomery (electric guitar), Wynton Kelly (piano), Paul Chambers (double bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums). From the album Smokin’ at the Half Note (1965).

The guitar is a stringed musical instrument composed of a resonance box, a neck on which is attached the fingerboard (piece of wood that covers the front of the neck), six strings, the bridge that supports them and the headstock to tune them. The frets are embedded on the fingerboard to get the different notes to sound. It’s played by strumming or plucking the strings with a pick or with the fingers or nails of one hand, while pressing the strings against the frets with the fingers of the other. The sound of the vibrating strings is emitted acoustically through the hollow chamber of the guitar or through an electric amplifier and a speaker.

There are three types of acoustic guitar: the classical guitar with nylon strings, the acoustic guitar with steel strings and the jazz guitar, which also has steel strings and is normally semiacustic. The electric guitar was introduced in the 1930s, and since it produces an electrical signal when played, it can be electronically manipulated to change its sound by utilizing an equalizer and electronic effects pedals, such as reverb and distortion. The first amplified guitars used a hollow body and those with a solid wood body appeared in the early 1960s.

The theme has an enjoyable main melody and the bridge is nice and cheerful in AABA structure. After exposing it, Montgomery makes his solo based on well-conceived and cordial phrases. He then uses octaves and continues playing in an affective and eloquent way adding in his discourse all kinds of resources that he executes with mastery. Next Kelly enters with a fresh and fluid melodic line that sometimes accelerates, but is interrupted by the presenter of the radio program.