Jazz Articles about Pat Martino

Brother Jack McDuff: Prelude

by C. Michael Bailey
October 21, 2003

If you, the gentle listener, were to ever tire of Jimmy Smith following an overdose of the master’s Blue Note catalog, I would direct you to anything by Brother Jack McDuff. A native of Champaign, IL, McDuff cut his teeth with Willis Jackson and Jimmy Forrest and helped a young George Benson get started. McDuff supported Gene Ammons, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, and Hank Crawford with his rock-steady time and spot-on bass-pedaling. Prelude is the re-release of McDuff’s 1964 big ...

Jack McDuff Big Band: Prelude

by David Rickert
October 5, 2003

McDuff was one of the artists able to capitalize on the success of Jimmy Smith, who briefly made organ combos fashionable in the sixties. Prelude is the third in a series of McDuff compilations that comb his prolific Prestige years for the best material. Whereas the first two were split between live and studio recordings, this recent disc covers the tracks recorded with a big band under the leadership of Benny Golson.

This new approach was an ...

Pat Martino: Think Tank

by Clifford Allen
October 5, 2003

It is difficult to make mainstream jazz (hard bop, etc.) relevant in light of the subversion or destruction of its form that occurred over thirty years ago. But, as many improvisers proved, it was possible to make consistently engaging and advanced music in the hard bop idiom well after the innovations of Ornette and Cecil took hold, and though the case for it is a little tougher today, there are a number of musicians who have found something new to ...

Pat Martino: Live At Yoshi's

by Jim Santella
August 1, 2001

Recorded late last year at a highly regarded Oakland, California nightclub, Pat Martino's trio session smokes from start to finish. Yoshi's features an impressive lineup all year round. The audience reaction on this, Martino's twentieth album, is merely an outward expression of what we feel as we listen. Guitarist, organist and drummer romp through straight-ahead classics deliberately, setting aside plenty of time for stretching out. Over ten minutes in several cases, the pieces offered provide fine examples of solo mastery ...

Pat Martino: Live at Yoshi's

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 1, 2001

Ever since Pat Martino signed with Blue Note, we’ve been waiting for the release that would break things wide open while harkening back to those ground-breaking Prestige sides that had every young guitarist at the time shaking in his boots. Live at Yoshi’s is definitely that record. With no gimmicks, special guests on revolving tracks, or overdubbed extras, Martino is at his expansive best, remarkably supported by Joey DeFrancesco on B-3 organ and Billy Hart on drums. The twosome of ...

Pat Martino: Live at Yoshi's

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 1, 2001

Ever since Pat Martino signed with Blue Note, we've been waiting for the release that would break things wide open while harkening back to those ground-breaking Prestige sides that had every young guitarist at the time shaking in his boots. Live at Yoshi's is definitely that record. With no gimmicks, special guests on revolving tracks, or overdubbed extras, Martino is at his expansive best, remarkably supported by Joey DeFrancesco on B-3 organ and Billy Hart on drums. The twosome of ...

Pat Martino: Live At Yoshi's

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 2001

Having received the advance CD of Pat Martino's performance at Yoshi's, I can't contain myself. Really. The street date for Live At Yoshi's is June 19, but a little pre-promotion can't hurt, can it?I'm not excited because I've been eagerly awaiting the next in a sporadic string of Pat Martino CD's. I'm not a Pat Martino cultist. I'm not in awe of the fact that Martino had to learn the guitar again from scratch after an operation to ...