Essay, Research Paper: Pat Martino - Jazz

Pat Martino

Pat Martino has gone through a lot of hard times in his life, but
he can always look up to his career in jazz. Martino is a guitarist who
was born in Philadelphia in 1944. Pat got all his talent from his
father, Carmen (Mickey) Azzara. Carmen sang in local clubs, but he
also was taught guitar from Eddie Lang. As a kid, Pat's father took
him to clubs, Pat heard many different artists, one of them being Wes
Montgomery.
Martino first fell in love with the guitar when he started to play
when he was twelve, he took lessons from Dennnis Sandole. Pat left
in his sophomore year in high school, he decided to devote himself to
music. Some of Martino's early heroes were Trane, Montgomery, and
Johnny Smith. Pat Martino became active in the early rock scene in
Philadelphia. He worked such stars as Bobby Rydell, Chubby
Checker, and Bobby Darin. Pat took his first road gig with one of his
high school friends, Charles Earland, a jazz organist. Martino was
later recruited by Lloyd Price, he played with Slide Hampton and Red
Holloway.
Pat Martino needed a change in his feel of jazz, so he moved to
Harlem to play some "soul jazz." Martino explains, "Heard all of the
white man's jazz. I never heard that other part of the culture." This
stage in Pat's life had a huge impact on his rhythmic and harmonic
approach. Soon after, Martino became a leader of Prestige Records
when he turned twenty. Pat Martino ended up making many records at
this time, such as, Strings!, Desperado, El Hombre, and Baiyina (The
Clear Evidence).
In 1976, Martino started having huge headaches, which was later
diagnosed as symptoms of his aneurysms. After Pat woke up from his
surgery, he didn't remember a thing, he barely even recognized his own
parents. Luckily, Martino had a great recovery. With the help of
computer technology, Pat started to get back his memory, and returned
to playing the guitar again. Finally, in 1987, Pat Martino came out
with a new CD, called The Return. Unfortunately, shortly after that,
both of his parents became ill. Pat did nothing, until 1994, when he
recorded a new CD named The Maker. This record was probably the
best record yet. Musician Magazine wrote, "The first Martino album
since Baiyina in which his musical aspirations transcend his sheer
virtuosity." Surprisingly, the album only took four hours to record,
since there were no second takes on any cuts.
Right now, Pat Martino lives in Philadelphia. At his home,
musicians crowd at his front door to take lessons from him. Martino
says, " The guitar is of no great importance to me, the people it brings
to me are what matter. They are what I'm extremely grateful for,
because they are alive. The guitar is just an apparatus." Those are the
words of a true musician.


DL Media " They Thought he Would Never Play Again"