Nick Colionne Plays Wes Montgomery Style

Many of you may not have heard of Nick Colionne. He’s a smooth jazz guitarist that plays in a similar style to that of Norman Brown and George Benson. Check him out at www.nickcolionne.com.  But I would say that in some ways, he’s much more influenced by Wes Montgomery than Norman.

I recently stumbled across an excellent set of 6 videos filmed by Gibson where Nick does a clinic demonstrating the Epiphone Broadway. I wasn’t sure if he was promoting the Epiphone Broadway ($799) or the Epiphone Broadway Elitist ($1999). I figure it’s the lower priced version since he doesn’t say the word “elitist” when he’s discussing the guitar.

He plays Epiphone guitars exclusively and his goal here is to get you interested in purchasing the guitar but he does a lot of good playing. On some of the songs he plays, you can just close your eyes and it sounds like you’re listening to Wes.  In fact, he plays the Wes Montgomery version of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”.

Definitely listen to the whole thing because there many VERY good tidbits of information about how he approaches playing jazz guitar dispersed throughout all the videos.  There’s also a question and answer session that’s very good. If you listen closely and really think about some of the things he’s saying, you’ll learn a lot. A very wise man indeed.

P.S., This should further prove that smooth jazz guitarists CAN and DO play straight-ahead jazz and do it well!

Enjoy,

Leon

Part 1

 

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6