Here’s how Wes Montgomery used the blues scale in many places: he played the tonic minor pentatonic / blues scale over the V7alt chord. In other words, he played the F blues scale over the C7alt chord in the key of F. Listen to his version of “Georgia On My Mind” (on ‘Down Here on the Ground’) and you’ll hear it at the end of the bridge. There are many other examples in his solos of this. Very tasteful.
Blues is the soul of jazz. Without it jazz can be a cold fish. My friend Andy Seyler has hipped me to other records besides Midnight Blue featuring Stanley Turrentine and Kenny Burrell that are the very apotheosis of jazz/blues.

“I have found (and hear) in many a fantastic player (and some half-way greats) the use of the whole chromatic scale,used discriminately and artfully with taste — while soling overthe Blues…..”

Vital point. Decades ago when some one first taught me the “blues scale” that is what I used – which severely limited me until I figured out that there was no generally agreed definition of the what is the “blues scale”. This also was about the time I figured out that playing a scale pattern over a chord was just a step on the learning path, a step that should be discarded in time. Now when I reckon of the “blues scale” I start by included everything but the M7 – and even that note can be used judiciously in passing.

For begginers: let your ears play with what sounds excellent/”blue” or not to you – and notice what sounds excellent at high tempos versus slower one. At higher tempos the ears tolerate/delight in more dissonance. As far as making something sound blue – I reckon the heart of the blues is the tension between major and minor – it stands between these two feelings. The b3 and b7 are the noun and verb of blues. The ultimately pleasing blue chord for me might be the x7#9. It contains both the major and minor third – apart by an octave. Jimi Hendrix seems to have been addicted to that chord.