Consciousness/Live!

Martino, Pat

album cover

An Original Jazz Guitar Voice Steps Out

Whenever you're feeling lethargic, unable to get anything done, cue up "Sunny" from Pat Martino's famed Live! disc, and prepare to have your clock cleaned. Here, in a solo that lasts more than four minutes, the guitarist motors from one peak to the next with such determination he seems less a jazz musician than a superhero charged with saving Planet Earth. On his first chorus, he forms long phrases out of dizzyingly intricate post-bebop lines, and guides each one to a brink that is utterly satisfying. At this point you'd expect him to chill for a minute, but Martino starts all over again, manufacturing even more ambitious ideas, pushing them up yet another mountain, toward yet another exhilarating culmination.

Martino came up playing with Philadelphia organ groups in the mid-'60s, and began recording under his own name in 1967. By the early '70s his records were being dissected by guitarists from all corners of music, for both his monstrous technique and his warm lyrical way. This release pairs Live! with a studio date from 1974, Consciousness, that is equally inspired: Beginning with a spry romp through Coltrane's "Impressions," Consciousness offers blindingly bright—yet never glib—Martino solos, each a marvel of structure. To hear an improviser in full control of his resources, check out the curvy bossa nova "Along Came Betty," then a pensive solo guitar reading of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now."

Martino is a kind of superhero in real life. In 1980, he had lifesaving brain surgery to correct an aneurysm, and discovered afterward that he'd completely forgotten how to play the guitar. He spent years relearning the instrument, in part by listening to his old records, and began recording again in 1987. Interestingly, Martino didn't simply recover his formidable technique, he developed a patient and highly personal melodic style that wasn't so obvious on his early works. Of the later recordings, the electrically charged Live at Yoshi's, with organist Joey DeFrancesco, is among the best.

Genre: Jazz
Released: 1997, 32 Jazz
Key Tracks: "Impressions," "Along Came Betty," "Both Sides Now," "Sunny"
Catalog Choice: East!; Live at Yoshi's.
Next Stop: John Abercrombie: Timeless
After That: Bill Frisell: Lookout for Hope.
Book Page: 478