Roy Montrell (27 February 1928 – 16 May 1979) was an American

rhythm & blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

who performed on hundreds of records produced in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. Born Raymond Eustis Montrell, in New Orleans,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

,Bob L. Eagle, Eric S. LeBlanc, ''Blues: A Regional Experience'', ABC-CIO, 2013, p.176 he performed as a

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

for many famous artists, as well as playing in

Fats Domino Antoine Caliste Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017), known as Fats Domino, was an American singer-songwriter and pianist. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orl ...

's band.Biography by Bruce Eder, ''Allmusic.com''
Retrieved 15 September 2015 He played on

Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the "Ar ...

's " Lucille",

Good Golly, Miss Molly "Good Golly, Miss Molly" is a rock 'n' roll song first recorded in 1956 by American musician Little Richard and released in January 1958 as Specialty single 624, and later on ''Little Richard'' in March 1958. The song, a jump blues, was written ...

, "Heeby-Jeebies", and "All Around the World," all charting R&B hits recorded in 1956. Montrell's 1956 recording of "(Everytime I Hear) That Mellow Saxophone", co-written with

John Marascalco John S. Marascalco (March 27, 1931 – July 5, 2020) was an American songwriter most noted for the songs he wrote for Little Richard. He was born in Grenada, Mississippi and died in Los Angeles, California. Career Marascalco co-wrote several o ...

and

Bumps Blackwell A bumps race is a form of rowing race in which a number of boats chase each other in single file, each crew attempting to catch and 'bump' the boat in front without being caught by the boat behind. The form is mainly used in intercollegiate c ...

, has been widely covered by acts including the

Stray Cats Stray Cats are an American rockabilly band formed in 1979 by guitarist and vocalist Brian Setzer, double bassist Lee Rocker, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom in the Long Island town of Massapequa, New York. The group had numerous hit singles in ...

Imelda May Imelda Mary Higham (; born 10 July 1974), professionally known as Imelda May, is an Irish singer, songwriter, television presenter and multi-instrumentalist. She is known for her musical style of rockabilly revival and has also been compared to ...

and

Supercharge In theoretical physics, a supercharge is a generator of supersymmetry transformations. It is an example of the general notion of a charge (physics), charge in physics. Supercharge, denoted by the symbol Q, is an operator which transforms bosons in ...

. It was chosen by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

for the "Musical Instruments" episode of his ''

Theme Time Radio Hour ''Theme Time Radio Hour'' (''TTRH'') was a weekly one-hour satellite radio show hosted by Bob Dylan that originally aired from May 2006 to April 2009. Each episode had a freeform mix of music, centered on a theme (such as "Weather", "Money" or ...

'' series and is featured on the 2-CD set of tracks from the show. Montrell died, aged 51, in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, while on a concert tour.

References

1928 births 1979 deaths Musicians from New Orleans Specialty Records artists 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Louisiana Rhythm and blues musicians from New Orleans {{R&Bsoul-bio-stub