Pat Martino at Yoshi's SF

The legendary Pat Martino played Yoshi's SF last Saturday as an organ trio with Pat Bianchi on organ and Carmen Intorre on drums.  Bianchi and Intorre play with a musicality and fire that belies
their youth.  I've had the privilege of seeing Pat Martino for many, many years, and I don't think I've ever heard him in better form.  He started out playing in organ trios with Brother Jack McDuff,  (with whom I've also had the prvilege of playing) and has returned to this format occasionally in the last few years.  He started the set with the Charlie Christian tune Seven Come Eleven.  It's hard to imagine the influence Charlie had on bebop; he was the Jimi Hendrix of his day.  From stating the melody onward Pat dove deep into postbop upper extensions and polyrythmic lines.  In fact the entire set was an exercise in making jazz standards that are forty to seventy years old vibrant, modern and even edgey.  The set included Full House, by Wes Montgomery, All Blues by Miles, and Footprints by Wayne Shorter.  All are tunes I still love to play.

Number 45 June 4, 2010

Tuesday I saw the great Pat Martino at Yohi's SF. Pat is a living master of the music; one of the musicians like McCoy Tyner , Jeff Beck, Ravi Shankar, Ornette Coleman, and a few others that I see whenever I can.  This gig featured Tony Monaco on Hammond B3, and Jason Brown on drums.  Pat's website is a wonderful resource for guitarists.  Like all great musicians, I believe Pat can touch people who don't normally listen to this kind of music.  From the stage he told an anecdote about introducing Les Paul (at whose house he was boarding) to Wes Montgomery between his sets when Pat was 17 or so.  Wes told Les that he was one of his two biggest heroes, along with Charlie Christian.  After his gig, he went back to Wes's club, and Pat, Wes, Les, and George Benson and Grant Green all went out to breakfast at 4 AM!

Number 31 February 18, 2010

Fear as a motivator.

Jeff Bridges was being interviewed by Charlie Rose a few weeks ago, promoting Crazy Heart. Asked if he was ever nervous while filming, he told the story of shooting a scene with Robert Ryan many years ago at the end of Ryan’s career. It was a western, and Bridges and Ryan were seated at a table for the scene. The crew had to wipe Ryan’s sweat off the table. “Still nervous after all these years Bobby?” asked Bridges. “I’d be really scared if I wasn’t scared” was the reply. “Of course I’m nervous”, Bridges told Rose. “You want to get it right”.

The great guitarist Pat Martino describes writing original tunes a few years ago. Having played standards for many years, he was afraid to write his own songs, and so he forced himself to do it. Humans maybe the only creatures capable of doing that which they fear, intentionally.

Emily Palen confided in me a week or so before we recorded her at Grace Cathedral: “I’m getting pretty scared”. Which I took as a good thing. When I mentioned the idea of a solo recital there as a cd release celebration, she said “That’s pretty scary. Let’s do it!”

The Valence Project recording was scary for me, working in a completely new, and experimental way. I think it has a great energy to it, in large part because the musicians were all in uncharted territory.

Number 24 November 16, 2009

I’ve mentioned that there is a tremendous crop of very talented young artists and performers. The SF Jazz Festival had Esperanza Spalding a couple of weeks ago. I knew she was very talented, but as is often the case, didn’t realize how extraordinary she was until I saw her live. Her acoustic bass technique is fantastic, and she simultaneously sings very imaginative and daring vocal lines. I’ve been saying it’s like hearing Betty Carter and Ron Carter at the same time. It’s as if no one ever told these young people what was impossible.

The next night we saw Pat Martino. Rightfully a legend (I’m very proud that I also played with Jimmie McCracklin and Brother Jack McDuff) he’s always fresh and inspirational too me. He has a very unique philosophy on the fret board, which he explains in The Nature of The Guitar. His website is well worth visiting. I like to get instructional dvds of my favorite players, just to see how differently they see the instrument. Pat is very geometric, McLaughlin is of course modal, and Robben Ford is very vertical, with wonderful whole tone and diminished seasonings. Sophisticated blues, as Robben says. Miles was certainly happy with him.

Gregory James