This collection ends with two pieces by Austin-based guitar wonder Eric Johnson, known for his obsessive-compulsive attention to detail (he claims to be able to hear the difference between brass- and steel-coated plugs on cables in the studio) and his flawless mastery of a wide range of styles. His reputation rests largely on his formidable instrumental pieces, especially the showy, high-speed, Grammy-winnning “Cliffs of Dover.” He was a real hero of mine for a long time, and I devotedly listened to his first album, Tones, for many years after seeing him play live in a mind-blowing set at the NAMM show in 1986. He then came out with an even better album in 1990, and both of these pieces are from that later, platinum-selling release, Ah, Via Musicom! (The title of that album, by the way, showcases Johnson’s weakest streak, his constant, earnest New Age wonderment, which largely ruined his next album.)

Anyway, there’s no typo in the title of this piece: “East Wes” refers to John Leslie “Wes” Montgomery, the great jazz guitar player, best known for his work in the late 1950s and early 60s (and the gentleman pictured above). Like many untrained musicians, Wes didn’t know what he was supposed to do, and so elaborated a whole series of unusual techniques that gave him a signature sound—in particular, playing melodies with octaves by strumming with the thumb (very visible here around 1:50, or throughout this video, where it becomes apparent that Wes played only using his thumb), much evident in this piece by Johnson, whose melody line is played entirely in octaves. (As a classical player, I do this “wrong” by picking with thumb and middle finger, which produces a slightly less jazzy tone.) The center section of this piece takes us into radically different territory, however, perhaps the “East” that’s opposed to “Wes”:  a fluid, fairly distorted melody that is then duplicated using artificial harmonics.