Pat Martino Biography
Pat Azzara, 25 April 1944, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Martino’s singer father encouraged him to play guitar and he received some instruction from his cousin. He was a professional guitarist by the age of 15, playing with saxophonists Willis Jackson and Red Holloway. He played in all the leading organ combos of the 60s: with Don Patterson, Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, Richard ‘Groove’ Holmes and Jimmy McGriff. In 1966, after four months with Sonny Stitt’s band, he worked with John Handy’s rather more avant garde
quintet. In the late 60s, Martino had his own bands with Cedar Walton, Richard Davis and Billy Hart.
The main influences on Martino were Wes Montgomery and eastern music, but during the 70s he became interested in the music of composers such as Stockhausen and Elliott Carter (he also taught and published a book called Linear Expressions with T. Baruso in 1983). He also formed the fusion group Joyous Lake, featuring keyboard player Delmar Brown and drummer Kenwood Dennard, who recorded an eponymous album in 1976. Martino suffered a seizure in 1980 which led to a temporary loss of memory, but he recovered and returned to playing in 1984, although he did not record again until 1987’s The Return. He has since released several albums, including 1997’s guitar showcase All Sides Now, which matched Martino with fellow players Charlie Hunter and Joe Satriani. The following year Martino teamed up with Brown and Dennard in a resurrected Joyous Lake. Martino’s playing is characterized by fleet finger work and virtuoso flourishes, while his improvisations involve passages in octaves like Wes Montgomery, and are often influenced by his choice of the 12-string guitar. The trick of his dark and chunky sound is that he tunes the treble strings down and the bass strings up.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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