Pat Martino

One of the most original of the jazz-based guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, Pat Martino made a remarkable comeback after brain surgery in 1980 to correct an aneurysm caused him to lose his memory and completely forget how to play. It took years, but he regained his ability, partly by listening to his older records.

Martino began playing professionally when he was 15. He worked early on with groups led by Willis Jackson, Red Holloway, and a series of organists, including Don Patterson, Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and Jimmy McGriff. After playing with John Handy (1966), he started leading his own bands and heading sessions for Prestige, Muse, and Warner Bros. that found him welcoming the influences of avant-garde jazz, rock, pop, and world music into his advanced hard bop style. After the operation, Martino did not resume playing until 1984, making his recording comeback with 1987's The Return. Although not as active as earlier, Pat Martino has regained his earlier form, recording again for Muse and Evidence; he later signed with Blue Note, issuing All Sides Now in 1996, followed two years later by Stone Blue and in 1999 by Mission Accomplished.

Recommended Listening

Pat Martino : Live At Yoshi's

That Pat Martino's new Live at Yoshi's is a stunning display of jazz-guitar prowess should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the six-string legend. That the disc is one of those lucky live albums that captures a night when everything seemed to be falling into place for Martino and his trio of organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Billy Hart is perhaps more than even the guitarist's most ardent admirers could have hoped for. DeFrancesco and Hart are both predictably awe-inspiring, but it's the telepathic chemistry between the three band members and the understandably thrilled audience that really blasts Live at Yoshi's into a higher realm of live jazz albums. The trio's interplay on the laid-back version of "All Blues" seems to reach a new peak with each chorus, culminating in Martino's beautiful closing unaccompanied cadenza, and the guitarist and DeFrancesco seem to inspire each other to ever greater heights on the ballad "Welcome to a Prayer." Those enamored of Martino's fleet-fingered heroics will have plenty to feast on here--from the breakneck tempo of the opening "Oleo" to the hard-swinging "El Hombre," Martino and DeFrancesco trade lines with an assurance that few musicians can muster. Martino has one of the more inspirational personal stories in music. A guitar legend in the '70s, he had to completely relearn the instrument after a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 1980--and he can now lay claim to one of the more inspirational live albums released in years. --Ezra Gale. Order here from Amazon.com

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