Pat Martino

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pat Martino
Photo by Tom Beetz
Photo by Tom Beetz
Background information
Birth name Pat Azzara
Born August 25, 1944 (1944-08-25) (age 63)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genre(s) Jazz
Occupation(s) Guitarist, composer
Instrument(s) Guitar
Label(s) Prestige, Muse, Cobblestone, Warner Bros., 32 Jazz, Evidence, Mythos, Camden, Blue Note

Pat Martino (born Pat Azzara on August 25, 1944) is an Italian-American jazz guitarist and composer within the post bop, soul jazz, mainstream jazz and hard bop idioms.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Martino was born in South Philadelphia, began playing the guitar at a young age, learning from Dennis Sandole, and began playing professionally at age 15. Martino played and recorded early in his career with musicians such as Willis Jackson and Eric Kloss. He also worked with many jazz organists, such as Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, Trudy Pitts, Jimmy Smith, Don Patterson, and Richard Groove Holmes. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Martino made many recordings as a sideman and also under his own name.

In 1980, Martino underwent surgery as the result of a nearly fatal brain aneurysm. The surgery left him with amnesia, leaving him, among other things, without any memory of the guitar and his musical career. With the help of friends, computers, and his old recordings, Martino made a recovery, and learned to play the guitar again. His improvisation method, "Conversion to Minor", is based upon using exclusively minor scales for soloing.

Martino's return to music started once again with the 1987 recording The Return. In 2006, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissued Martino's album East! on Ultradisc UHR SACD. As of 2007, Martino tours worldwide.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

  • Pat Martino (1966), Vanguard - unreleased LP
  • El Hombre (1967), Prestige
  • Strings! (1967), Prestige
  • East! (1968), Prestige
  • Baiyina (The Clear Evidence) (1968) , Prestige
  • Desperado (1970), Prestige
  • Footprints (1972), 32 Jazz
  • The Visit (1972), Cobblestone
  • Live! (1972), Muse
  • Head & Heart: Consciousness/Live (1972), 32 Jazz
  • Essence (1973), Muse
  • Consciousness (1974), Muse
  • Starbright (1976), Warner Bros.
  • Joyous Lake (1976), Warner Bros.
  • Exit (1977), Muse - MR 5075, recorded February 10, 1976
  • The Return (1987), Muse
  • The Maker (1994), Evidence
  • Interchange (1994), Muse
  • Night Wings (1996), Muse
  • Cream (1997), 32 Jazz
  • All Sides Now (1997), Blue Note
  • Stone Blue (1998), Blue Note - with Joyous Lake
  • Fire Dance (1998), Mythos
  • Comin' and Goin': Exit & the Return (1999)
  • First Light (1999), 32 Jazz - compilation album of Joyous Lake and Starbright
  • Impressions (1999), Camden
  • Givin' Away the Store, Vol. 3 (2000), 32 Jazz
  • The Philadelphia Experiment The Philadelphia Experiment (2001), Ropeadope
  • Live at Yoshi's (2001), Blue Note
  • Think Tank (2003), Blue Note
  • Timeless Pat Martino (2003), Savoy Jazz
  • Starbright/Joyous Lake (2006), Collectables
  • Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery (2006), Blue Note

[edit] External links