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.
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