Jazz Articles about Pat Martino

Willis Jackson w/ Pat Martino: Gravy

by Derek Taylor
May 1, 2001

A celebrity in Rhythm & Blues circles since his late teens Willis Jackson fought an uphill battle trying to earn acceptance among the jazz intelligentsia. He and many of his peers including King Curtis and Fred Jackson were saddled with the barwalker stigma from the moment they tried to establish themselves as serious improvisers. Dates like the two collected on this Prestige two-fer were often a double-edged prospect for while they afforded Jackson the chance to prove his chops they ...

Pat Martino: Mission Accomplished

by Douglas Payne
October 1, 1999

The title refers to 32 Jazz's successful release of Pat Martino's entire Muse and Warner Bros. catalog between 1972 and 1996. The result is four two-fers, two single discs and several compilations showcasing one of the finest, most consistent jazz guitarists of the last quarter century. Mission Accomplished is one of the two-fers that combines Martino's final two Muse releases, 1994's outstanding Interchange and 1996's too-disconcertingly insubstantial Nightwings.Both discs provide similarities in sound and style, due ...

Pat Martino: Comin' & Goin'

by Douglas Payne
September 1, 1999

The two-disc set, Comin' and Goin', collects guitarist Pat Martino's final Muse LP of the 1970s, Exit (1976), and his first Muse recording of the 1980s, The Return (1987). In between, Martino recorded two fine fusion albums for Warner Bros. (both documented on the 32 Jazz set, First Light ), suffered a brain aneurysm, lost all his memory and completely taught himself to play the guitar all over again.A story like that almost forces the listener to place ...

70's Jazz Pioneers: Live! at The Town Hall New York City

by Glenn Astarita
May 1, 1999

The “Young Lions” of the 1970’s? Now we refer to them as the “70’s Jazz Pioneers”. Perhaps in the year 2010 some will refer to Wynton Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart and Joshua Redman, as the (mainstream) “80’s Jazz Pioneers”? Although, this writer would hardly cite Redman or Hargrove as true pioneers but this is good fodder for ongoing debates et al.

Here, those 70’s’ Pioneers reunite at New York City’s famous “Town Hall” to perform well known compositions by ...

Trudy Pitts/Pat Martino: Legends Of Acid Jazz

by John Sharpe
May 1, 1999

Super spy Austin Powers would dig this ---- yeah baby! This CD is one of twenty-five in Prestige's new Legends Of Acid Jazz series. These reissues celebrate that funky, far-out time in the early-60s and 70s when soul-jazz enjoyed enormous, if brief, popularity. All feature ersatz psychedelic cover art and each single disc often contains two full-length LPs. For example, Trudy Pitts/Pat Martino combines two albums recorded by Prestige in 1967--Introducing The Fabulous Trudy Pitts and These Blues Of Mine. ...

Pat Martino: First Light

by Douglas Payne
February 1, 1999

Guitar and fusion fans will surely welcome this excellent 32 Jazz set featuring all of Joyous Lake and Starbright, guitarist Pat Martino's two 1976 Warner Brothers albums. Martino left Muse Records in 1976 with the promise of mega-giant Warner's clout to reach a wider audience. Usually that spells concession to popular tunes or sellable formulas. And while this music is often more fusion-oriented than anything Martino had recorded up to this point, there's no sell out. Joyous Lake ...

Trudy Pitts/Pat Martino: Legends of Acid Jazz

by Douglas Payne
February 1, 1999

Organist Trudy Pitts, who still lives and plays in Philadelphia, is a classically trained pianist whose lounge-jazz organ style was captured on four Prestige albums during 1967-68. Legends of Acid Jazz: Trudy Pitts/Pat Martino collects the first two of these, Introducing the Fabulous Trudy Pitts and These Blues of Mine.Like Shirley Scott and Gloria Coleman, two other women organists in jazz, Pitts brings an appealing sensitivity to her clunky, domineering instrument. But, unlike Scott and Coleman, Pitts tends ...