Pat Martino - 2000 "Live at Yoshi's"

 Live at Yoshi's is an album recorded by jazz guitarist Pat Martino in 2001. It was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

That Pat Martino's new Live at Yoshi's is a stunning display of jazz-guitar prowess should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the six-string legend. That the disc is one of those lucky live albums that captures a night when everything seemed to be falling into place for Martino and his trio of organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Billy Hart is perhaps more than even the guitarist's most ardent admirers could have hoped for. DeFrancesco and Hart are both predictably awe-inspiring, but it's the telepathic chemistry between the three band members and the understandably thrilled audience that really blasts Live at Yoshi's into a higher realm of live jazz albums. The trio's interplay on the laid-back version of "All Blues" seems to reach a new peak with each chorus, culminating in Martino's beautiful closing unaccompanied cadenza, and the guitarist and DeFrancesco seem to inspire each other to ever greater heights on the ballad "Welcome to a Prayer." Those enamored of Martino's fleet-fingered heroics will have plenty to feast on here--from the breakneck tempo of the opening "Oleo" to the hard-swinging "El Hombre," Martino and DeFrancesco trade lines with an assurance that few musicians can muster. Martino has one of the more inspirational personal stories in music. A guitar legend in the '70s, he had to completely relearn the instrument after a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 1980--and he can now lay claim to one of the more inspirational live albums released in years.

With Live at Yoshi's, his 20th recording as a leader and third release for the Blue Note label, the legendary Pat Martino has come full circle. Accompanied by Joey DeFrancesco on Hammond B-3 and Billy Hart on drums, the hard bop and funky soul-jazz of this trio are sure to please enthusiasts of the guitar, organ, and drum trio. Martino, heir to Wes Montgomery's warm, bluesy guitar style, plays eight great compositions, including two great extended versions of the classic Miles Davis compositions "All Blues" and "Blue in Green." On "All Blues," creative guitar voice plays the melody with soulful interpretations and subtle musical resonance. Martino's version of "Blue in Green" creates a world of melancholy and the guitarist plays his guitar with the same sweet sadness as Miles did with the support of DeFrancesco's organ solo adding additional shades of emotion. The songs selected for this "live" performance recording also appear on previously recorded Martino projects, including his 1970 Desperado album and his 1998 Stone Blue CD. However, listeners now receive the benefit of having the set performance available in real time. From the sound of the audience on Live at Yoshi's, the guitar sage's head-spinning dexterity and cool tones on "Catch" are more spirited than ever, and after listening to this CD, you'll be inclined to agree. 

R.I.P. Pat Martino.

Track listing:

All compositions by Pat Martino except as indicated

    "Oleo" (Sonny Rollins) (7:02)
    "All Blues" (Miles Davis) (12:05)
    "Mac Tough" (10:05)
    "Welcome to a Prayer" (10:33)
    "El Hombre" (10:32)
    "Recollection" (8:00)
    "Blue in Green" (Bill Evans, Miles Davis) (7:21)
    "Catch" (11:06)

Personnel:

    Pat Martino - guitar
    Billy Hart - drums
    Joey DeFrancesco - organ

Pat Martino - 1998 "Stone Blue"

 

 

Guitarist Pat Martino exhibits his long-standing appreciation for the urban lifestyle of New York City and Philadelphia on his latest album Stone Blue. That cocky feeling of self-assurance one develops from living and working in the city gives rise to strutted rhythms, deliberate tempos, and melodies that range from sixteenth-note-laden confetti clusters to dreamy skyborne shouts. Sharing the front line with tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, Martino presents nine of his compositions with the support of keyboardist Delmar Brown, bassist James Genus and drummer Kenwood Dennard. You can find complete biographical information about guitarist Pat Martino at http://www.patmartino.com/ .

Genus' six-string electric bass and Dennard's cymbal ride drive the album; all but one piece are presented up-tempo with an emphasis on deliberate rhythms and front line conversation. Alexander's tenor saxophone voice is earthy and confident, while Martino's guitar enthuses with its desire to speak out. Together, they gel as one voice. The ballad "Never Say Goodbye" is a tearful dedication to guitarist Michael Hedges, who passed away last November in a tragic automobile accident at the age of 43. Over twenty years ago, while Martino was recovering from brain surgery, Hedges visited him in the hospital and played for him at his bedside.

Other dedications on the album include nods to Wes Montgomery and Jack McDuff. "13 To Go" and "Mac Tough" include organ romps from Brown. "Joyous Lake" is a happy tune that was originally recorded in 1977 just before Martino's ten-year hiatus. Adhering to the album's urban theme, the arrangement juxtaposes a Brazilian carnival backdrop with lyrical offerings from guitarist, saxophonist, and keyboardist. An overt enthusiasm and hearty front line drive Martino's latest album through timeless city streets. Recommended.

Few musicians in any genre or on any instrument can boast guitarist Pat Martino's combination of supple, fast mobility and rich, tight control. In the 1960s, Martino earned his chops playing in a number of organ combos with Jack McDuff, Richard "Groove" Holmes, and Jimmy Smith, so the overall concept of hard-hitting, funky music has been familiar to the guitarist for decades. On Stone Blue, he pushes the concept with his usually rotund sound and lightspeed dexterity, drawing off James Genus's sinuous electric bass and Eric Alexander's ultra-tight tenor saxophone execution. Martino takes many of the tunes off into the realm of jazz fusion circa mid-1970s, thanks in part to the keyboards of Delmar Brown. The music is always explorative, tossing together the group's funky collective feel and Martino's tense lines, where he runs parallel phrases at astonishing paces, and then lets his guitar sing in the background while his accompanists blast off funky solos. A rare longtimer in jazz, Martino shows stone cold genius on Stone Blue.

"The guitar master is at it again on this collection of original tunes. Mixing up bop and funk with heavy doses of pop, he offers up a very listenable album with lots of character". Jim Santella from All About Jazz noted: "Guitarist Pat Martino exhibits his long-standing appreciation for the urban lifestyle of New York City and Philadelphia on his latest album Stone Blue. That cocky feeling of self-assurance one develops from living and working in the city gives rise to strutted rhythms, deliberate tempos, and melodies that range from sixteenth-note-laden confetti clusters to dreamy skyborne shouts".

This recording resurrects a superb band from some years ago, Joyous Lake. The inimitable Pat Martino is the featured soloist on electric guitar, but does not dominate the disc.

The tunes tend to have a bit of a funk or rock feel to them, but vary in tone and texture. The first track blast off high into the stratosphere of tight, swinging, jumping jazz--with an unforgettable head. Of course, every solo by Mr. Martino is excellent, given his tone, speed, phrasing, octaves, and accompanying. The drummer, Mr. Dennart is quite a marvel--endlessly inventive with a magical left hand on the snare. Mr. Alexander on tenor saxophone knows how to go inside and outside with deftness. You hear a bit of Coltrane and Bird in this playing, but he is his own man.

The keyboard playing is fine, but uses more special effects than I would prefer. Give me the Hammond B-3 with a gifted player anytime, such as Pat Bianci, who is now touring with Pat Martino's trio. One should be grateful for music of this caliber. There is objective beauty in the universe, as manifested by these gifted creatures.

The All About Jazz critic Josef Woodard commented: "What sounds timeless here is the leader, wailing with a kind of concurrent wisdom and go-for-broke commitment to improvisational abandon. The truth is that Martino stands up every time he plays. Hints of Martino's unique power is contained in each episode of his work, this latest chapter included".

R.I.P. Pat Martino

Track listing:

All compositions by Pat Martino

    "Uptown Down" – 4:25
    "Stone Blue" – 6:46
    "With All the People" – 9:15
    "13 to Go" – 7:27
    "Boundaries" – 8:09
    "Never Say Goodbye" – 3:40
    "Mac Tough" – 6:13
    "Joyous Lake" – 13:26
    "Two Weighs Out" – 0:33

Personnel:

    Pat Martino – guitar
    Eric Alexander – tenor saxophone
    Delmar Brown – keyboards
    James Genus – bass
    Kenwood Dennard – drums, percussion

Charles Mingus - 1979[2002] "Me, Myself an Eye"

 

Charles Mingus did not perform on the final sessions he made for Atlantic toward the end of his life. Too ill with ALS to pick up his bass, he nonetheless was a powerful presence in the studio. The arrangements and orchestrations were realized by trumpeter Jack Walrath based on Mingus's tapes and piano sketches. The huge band can get a bit unwieldy, and the arrangements, which feature a solo from Larry Coryell, do tend to pander a bit to the fusion audience. In spite of these drawbacks, the half-hour "Three Worlds of Drums" is great.

Among jazz's all-time greats, Charles Mingus made seminal contributions to the music as a bassist, bandleader and composer. Released 40 years ago this month, ME MYSELF AN EYE was recorded near the end of Mingus' career, when the ravages of ALS left him unable to play. But his forceful personality was ever-present in the studio, bringing the best out of the big band assembled for these sessions, and his tapes and piano sketches provided the basis for Jack Walrath's arrangements. Opening the set is the side-long “Three Worlds Of Drums,” on which longtime Mingus band member Danny Richmond is joined by fellow drummers Steve Gadd and Joe Chambers. With guitar and electronic instrumentation in places, the Atlantic collection touches on fusion, and axeman Larry Coryell is another luminary heard on the superb ME MYSELF AN EYE.

The following was published in Chords and Dischords section of the Downbeat magazine in June 21, 1979:

    In the review of the Charles Mingus record Me, Myself An Eye the reviewer was understandably vague as to what my contribution was in regard to the writing credits on the album. The quote, "all arrangements and orchestrations were realized by Jack Walrath under the supervision of and as dictated by Charles Mingus, in person and through the use of tapes and piano sketches," seems to imply that I was simply the copyist. In view of such descriptions of the music in media as "lasting work of genius," "monumental," etc., I think I should set the record straight as to what I actually did.

    I told Mingus that all I wanted was credit for arranging and orchestration.

    For Three Worlds Of Drums, Charles gave me a tape of himself noodling on a Moorish-sounding scale and said to me, "Pick out some of my notes, organize a melody and write an arrangement on it." This I did, plus wrote an introduction of my own invention, a background which is a four-part fugue, set the form and wrote the ensembles for the drum solos. The shout chorus was a melody which Mingus wrote and to which I kept adding counter lines until at one point the music breaks into five-part counterpoint. The trumpet-soprano melody near the end was organized the same as the initial melody, "take some of my notes...", etc., the funeral ending I transcribed from a piano tape. He visualized the work as a bebop tune, which when played in rehearsal was a disaster, so I had the band play the quasi-Latin-rock-bellydance rhythm as is heard. All in all Mingus supplied me with one lead line, loose sketches for two more, a six bar ending and a basic chord consisting of two perfect 5th's a half-step apart sounded simultaneously. I wrote 75 score pages of music or approximately 95% of the compositon.

    Carolyn "Keki" Mingus was orchestrated practically verbatim from his piano score except the out chorus which are my voicings and arrangement.

    Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting was written according to his instructions except the out chorus which are my voicings and arrangement.

    Devil Woman was totally my arrangement and was written while Charles was in Woodstock and I was in Manhattan. He said he wanted a slow blues. Neither did he hear the arrangement nor did he even know that I picked Devil Woman until two days before the session.

    I am in no way trying to discredit the talent of one of the great composers of any kind of music of any era, but I think that I have shown more fairness to Mingus, his executors, and the record company than they did to me. I was denied entrance to the mix, which would probably have been better had I been there, since I was the only one who really knew what was happening in the music.

    Jack Walrath, New York City.

Track listing:

1. Three Worlds Of Drums    30:21
2. Devil Woman    9:24
3. Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting    9:50
4. Carolyn ''Keki'' Mingus    7:44

Personnel:

    Alto Saxophone – Akira Ohmori, Lee Konitz (tracks: B1 to B3), Yoshiaki Malta* (tracks: B1 to B3)
    Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Ken Hitchcock
    Baritone Saxophone – Craig Purpura, Pepper Adams, Ronnie Cuber
    Bass – Eddie Gomez, George Mraz (tracks: A)    
    Drums – Dannie Richmond, Joe Chambers, Steve Gadd (tracks: A)
    Guitar – Jack Wilkins, Larry Coryell, Ted Dunbar
    Percussion – Ray Mantilla (tracks: A), Sammy Figueroa (tracks: A)
    Piano – Bob Neloms
    Tenor Saxophone – Daniel Block, George Coleman (tracks: A), John Tank (tracks: B1 to B3), Michael Brecker, Ricky Ford
    Trombone – Jimmy Knepper, Keith O'Quinn (tracks: B1 to B3), Slide Hampton (tracks: A)
    Trumpet – Jack Walrath, Mike Davis (49), Randy Brecker