First, to answer your question, "Is this blog going to ALL about jazz?"
Answer: No, definitely not. However jazz is a huge part of my life and musical vocabulary, and so it is important for me to share!
So, I continue...
Larry Coryell told me once in a lesson, and again when talking in front of me, and about me, that when I am confident in what I am playing, and play a run clean (not necessarily clean tone, but clean playing), I sound like Pat Martino. Let me say now, that I was floored by such a comment, and am far from the genius of either of those men. Faaaar.
However, I think I want to bottle that moment up and save it forever. The icing on the cake, is that I was able to tell Pat Martino how that was the single greatest compliment I've received as a guitarist/musician (except for when after a show once some guy told me I sounded like Kirk Hammett from Metallica, which was so strange and so cool! I am a big fan! And once someone said my band sounded like Dream Theater...although I don't know if that's a compliment or not. I suppose it depends on who you ask, and I did NOT tell Mr.Martino either of those...)
Funny, how I just started thinking about that comment in writing this blog and thought, "I should post this around Pat's birthday and highlight some of my favorite recordings of his." I then took a break for a second to go to look up his birthday (which I've never looked up or had any reason to read or know ever) and it was just 3 days ago! Ok, it would have been weirder if it were today, or tomorrow, but...may as well wish the man a Happy Belated and share a little glimpse of this amazing musician!
From http://www.patmartino.com/Articles/ArticleByJudeHibler_frame.htm
"Spending 23 years of his life learning about this instrument and the music was the focus for Pat Martino. A devastating brain aneurysm took that lifestyle away for several years. In 1980, Martino underwent brain surgery to have the aneurysm, an excessive localized enlargement of an artery, removed. The removal of the aneurysm, which saved his life, removed his memory of how to play the guitar.
A temporary paralysis of the mind is a typical outcome for many people experiencing this kind of operation.
For most professional jazz musicians, to lose the ability to make their music is as close to living a walking death as there is. Undergoing any operation always brings with it the potential of not recovering.
Surviving surgery, however, brings forth its own set of unforeseen problems. Even when the surgeon warns the patient of some of the recovery and rehabilitation possibilities, no one person can prepare another person for the actual pain and suffering of relearning how to live.
Basic physical functions: like how to bend your thumb or fingers, how to tie your shoe, how, simply to take a shower, become daily puzzles requiring an energy and problem- solving skill heretofore never imagined by the person in recovery.
Laying a few of these obstacles before you is necessary in order for you to understand the absolutely remarkable story of Pat Martino's courage, resolve, and living testimonial of how strong the human spirit is when it is harmonious with the rest of its world."
Amen. Here are a list of my few favorite Pat Martino tracks and then a video of Pat, Joey Defrancesco and John Scofield doing one of my favorite tunes, "Sunny" (we'll get to "Sunny" on the road to Spain). Interestingly enough, the progression for "Sunny" is quite similar chord-wise to "Black Orpheus" and the solo section to Freddie Hubbard's "Red Clay". Pat, Joey and Sco are just ripping!
Pat Martino's Birthday Party:
El Hombre (Pat Martino, El Hombre)
A Blues for Mickey-O (Pat Martino, El Hombre)
Israfel (Pat Martino, Baiyina - The Clear Evidence)
Oleo (Pat Martino, Live at Yoshi's)
All Blues (Pat Martino, Live at Yoshi's)
Welcome to a Prayer (Pat Martino, Live at Yoshi's)
Sunny (The Pat Martino Quartet, Pat Martino: Live!)
Four on Six (Pat Martino, Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery)
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