Buddy and Monk Montgomery, along with their more celebrated brother Wes, rivaled the Heath family as jazz's most prolific family act. Pianist/vibraphonist Buddy (1930-2009), bassist Monk (1921-1982), and guitarist Wes (1923-1968) played together in two well-known and other lesser-known groups. Monk was the first jazz musician to specialize on and record with the electric bass, which he began playing in the early '50s on tour with Lionel Hampton's big band. Buddy was a soulful, underrated pianist and vibist, effective in bebop, hard bop, blues, or soul-jazz situations. The three brothers worked together in the Montgomery-Johnson Quintet with Alonzo Johnson and Robert Johnson in the mid-'50s, and then as the Mastersounds from 1957 to 1960 and the Montgomery Brothers in 1960 and 1961. Monk returned to acoustic bass, but then went back to electric in the mid-'60s playing with Cal Tjader. He settled in Las Vegas in 1970, and played with Red Norvo until 1972. He worked as a disc jockey and started the Las Vegas Jazz Society, while also visiting South Africa as the leader of an African-American jazz group in the mid-'70s.