Jazz Articles about Pat Martino

Martino Unstrung: A Brain Mystery

by Victor L. Schermer
November 3, 2008

Pat Martino Martino Unstrung: A Brain Mystery Sixteen Films 2008 Martino Unstrung: A Brain Mystery is a running commentary about a man, his music, his friends and family, and his philosophy of life. The man is living legend and jazz guitarist, Pat Martino. The film could be thought of as an intimate journey with Martino on the road of life. However, its emphasis is on his brain aneurysm, surgery, memory loss, and the remarkable recovery ...

Pat Martino: Martino Unstrung

by Victor L. Schermer
November 3, 2008

A new documentary film about legendary guitarist Pat Martino, Martino Unstrung, focuses on his brain disease—AVM or arteriovenous malformation—emergency surgery, profound memory loss, and miraculous musical and personal recovery. It also presents intimate portraits of Martino, his music, his wife Ayako Akai, his friends across the decades, his family, and important locales in his life. It is only natural that one would want to know Martino's own reflections on a film which is not only about him but in which ...

Pat Martino: Consciousness

by Andrey Henkin
December 8, 2007

“I've always had an individualistic relationship to the instrument, almost to a degree of isolation with it. This is a heady statement from guitarist Pat Martino and it seems obvious, coming from a player with such a discernable voice. But, on the other hand, Martino has been often assigned roles and cut facets that are at best limiting and at worst inaccurate. His relationship with Wes Montgomery is well-known, but hardly defines him. Martino is dubbed a Philadelphia guitarist but ...

Pat Martino: El Hombre

by Jim Santella
September 10, 2007

Recorded May 1, 1967, this session was Pat Martino's first album as leader. His guitar moves valiantly with all the swagger of a cowboy; smoking guns and flying fingers dot the landscape of his trail. The allusion, of course, is to Paul Newman's Western film Hombre that came out the same year. Both are unforgettable. Both feature young lion artists in their earliest successes and there are, indeed, many parallels between the music and the movie. The ...

Pat Martino: El Hombre

by Jim Santella
April 1, 2007

Registrazione come capo, il EL Hombre del Martino del picchiettio la prima è stata fatta quando aveva appena 22 anni. Stava giocando professionalmente da quando era diciassette (1961-1944=17). Da Filadelfia, stato sotto il periodo di molti greats di jazz dalla città di Amore di Brotherly. Così il suo amore di jazz è venuto naturalmente a lui, come il suo talento con il guitar.Sei delle piste dell'album otto sono originali del Martino, danti ai suoi pubblici un buon, sguardo ...

Pat Martino: El Hombre

by Martin Gladu
February 24, 2007

What a journey this hombre has had. The man in question, Italian-American guitarist Pat Martino, as it has been often reported, fought through a series of severe predicaments throughout his career. After undergoing diverse medical treatments, he resiliently baby-stepped his way back in the music business. He has since catered to his creative force and connected it to others' in live and recorded performances and by getting involved in music education. He may now be in his early 60s, Martino ...

Pat Martino: Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery

by John Barron
February 23, 2007

The last thing jazz needs is more tribute projects that merely perpetuate the ever-increasing stagnation of an industry trying to make a fast buck off the legacy of fallen giants. At first glance it would appear that this is exactly what Remember is all about. But fortunately, the artist paying tribute here is Philadelphian Pat Martino, a bona fide giant of jazz guitar who maintains the same rapid-fire intensity that put him on the jazz map in the 1960s.

Martino ...