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.

April 25 20012

The New Charles Lloyd Quartet featuring Maria Farantouri played Herbst Sunday as part of SF Jazz.  This was a true meeting of world music.  Maria was the voice of Mikis Theodorakis' compositions, and a symbol of the resistance to the Greek military junta.  Charles Lloyd is one of my biggest musical influences.  To this day my love of major and minor 9ths and 13ths stems from his great quartet with Jack DeJohnette, Cecil McBee and Keith Jarrett. (For a while, Gabor Szabo was in the band!)  His New Quartet of the last several years includes Jason Moran, Eric Harland, and Reuben Rogers.  Along with Wayne Shorter's Quartet, I believe it is among the most important music being made.  Charles has known Maria for many years, and has studied Greek music.  All ethnic music has modes, and pentatonic scales, with micro tones (from Indian classical, to the blues).  Charles and Maria blended, seemingly effortlessly, while Eric Harland wove an infinite pattern of rhythms that would have confounded lesser talents.  True Genius!

February 1 2012

The new Sony release "Miles Davis Quintet - Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Volume 1" is a must have.  The second great Miles quintet, with Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter is documented live on two cds and one extraordinary dvd.  The set list is virtually identical each performance, with radically different interpretations of each tune.  Miles would lead into each tune before the end of the last, creating seamless concertos.  Herbie has described what they did as controlled freedom; they would play within the form of the tune, and then go outside.  A look, or a motif, would signal when it was time to return to the form.  Weather Report would later incorporate this technique, as does The Kai Eckhardt Band, with whom I'm recording my latest cd.

October 17 2011

Genius is a word used too often.  But the SF Jazz Festival the last two weeks has indeed presented genius.  By my definition, a genius changes the way we perceive a discipline.  Einstein, Picasso, Charlie Parker.  October 1 at the Paramount the young genius Esperanza Spaulding and her Chamber Music Society played. The next night Wayne Shorter and his quartet were at Herbst.  Then Ravi Shankar on October 7 at Davies.  Now 91, I've had the privilge of seeing Ravi for over 40 years.  With his daughter Anoushka a recent mom and not on this tour, I was afraid age might finally catch up with him.  It hasn't; he's still the finest musician in the world, of any genre.  And last night, McCoy Tyner, who I've also had the privilege of seeing since my teens, played Herbst with the fabulous Chris Potter on tenor.

Number 40 April 29, 2010

Charles Lloyd at The Palace of Fine Arts as part of SF Jazz this last Sunday was magical.  He is one of my biggest musical influences.  I realized years ago that many of the open voiced major ninth chords I love to play, and which are unusual voicings for a guitarist, come from Keith Jarrett's work with Charles' early quartet.  The current quartet, with Reuben Rogers on bass, Jason Moran on piano, and Eric Harland on drums is perhaps his best since that fine group.  I just redicovered his first recording, "Of Course, Of Course",  with Ron Carter ,Tony Williams  , and Gabor Szabo.  Charles Lloyd was the music director for Chico Hamilton when Gabor was in the band.  I had the priviledge of being in Chico's band in 1979 and 1980, and I was flattered that I reminded him of Gabor.  It amazes me what a direct link there is between musicians.  Along with Wayne Shorter and Cecil Taylor, Charles Lloyd remains at the forefront of pushing the music forward, something very few artists can do at an advanced age.

Number 17 October 19, 2009

“A lot of musicians worry about protecting what I call their musical foundation. They want to be on their Ps and Qs on stage, put their best foot forward, play their best runs, their best and try to impress people. But I’m at a point where I’m just going to say “To hell with the rules” That’s all I’m doing with the music now. I’m 76, I’ve got nothing to lose now. I’m going for the unknown”. Wayne Shorter

It’s no coincidence that Wayne Shorter played with Miles. Miles, who once fired a sax player he heard through a hotel room door practicing hard bop lines he intended to play that night. Miles, who could change what a band was playing by what he was NOT playing; just by listening. “I pay you to practice on stage” as Miles said to Coltrane.

I saw Dylan at The Greek Theater last week, and Wayne Shorter at Zellerbach Saturday night. There are some artists I see whenever I can. I’ve been going to Ravi Shankar concerts since I was 15. McCoy Tyner, Dylan, Eric Clapton, Shorter, Mariza. I saw Miles many, many times. Benny’s first show with Miles, he was shaking on stage. Miles had him take the first solo. It was a little rough, but the groove was fine after that. Bobby Scott (A Taste of Honey, One Is the Loneliest Number) once told me he’d rather listen to 5 minutes of Clapton than an hour of most other music. “Because at my age, I don’t have time for anything but the truth”. I saw Miles’ second to last show. A completely new band, very dark and moody. He was getting ready to do something new, that would doubtless frustrate his recent fans. My newest musical discovery, Emily Palin, busks on the street in front of Niman Marcus. She plays in a lot of different bands and contexts. I realize what I find so inspiring about her playing is that she is fearless. I think Mr. Shorter would appreciate her.


Gregory James