(Book). By age 16, Pat Martino was already working as a member of R&B star Lloyd Price's touring musical revue. By age 18, Martino moved to Harlem, where he quickly earned a reputation as a hard-bopping six-stringer with formidable chops through a series of apprenticeships with the likes of honking tenor saxophonist Willis "Gaitor Tail" Jackson and Hammond B-3 organ ma
(Book). By age 16, Pat Martino was already working as a member of R&B star Lloyd Price's touring musical revue. By age 18, Martino moved to Harlem, where he quickly earned a reputation as a hard-bopping six-stringer with formidable chops through a series of apprenticeships with the likes of honking tenor saxophonist Willis "Gaitor Tail" Jackson and Hammond B-3 organ master Jack McDuff. Martino made his auspicious debut as a leader at age 22 with 1967's El Hombre on Prestige and followed with a string of potent recordings for the label that further established him as one of the most distinctive guitar voices on the jazz scene. Then, at the peak of his powers, the bottom fell out. In 1980, he underwent surgery as the result of a nearly fatal brain aneurysm. The surgery left him without any memory of the guitar or his musical career. From that point, Martino undertook the long process of recovery, eventually learning how to play the guitar again; but more important, learning to transcend the instrument itself and live his life completely in the moment. More than just the remarkable story of one of the most original and profoundly influential guitarists in jazz history, this extraordinarily revealing autobiography is also a survival manual, of sorts, in overcoming incredible adversity and learning to live in the here and now.
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The content is lacking in some details. I would like to know more specifics about guitars used on recordings and inner workings of Pat's guitar-centric harmonic theory.
pat plays differently from others - lots of steady eight notes - and i hoped to love this book but i can't imagine giving it five stars because it taught me very little about music. about the only thing i learned was that pat was seen practicing most of the time - that is why he is so good. but most great players from mozart to roger federer put in 10,000 hours to become incredible and so pat is no different - thus there may be no short cuts. most of the book was of little use EXCEPT it helped c
pat plays differently from others - lots of steady eight notes - and i hoped to love this book but i can't imagine giving it five stars because it taught me very little about music. about the only thing i learned was that pat was seen practicing most of the time - that is why he is so good. but most great players from mozart to roger federer put in 10,000 hours to become incredible and so pat is no different - thus there may be no short cuts. most of the book was of little use EXCEPT it helped create a timeline to pat's work - it taught me what was happening in pat's life around the time of all his records and that was very helpful. the discography was also very helpful, especially in order to find the cds he did as a sideman.
basically if you want to learn more about pat - transcribe him yourself with "the amazing slow downer" app on your iphone and buy his cds, educational video's, and music books. i'm a bit hardcore and as such i read EVERYTHING on someone i really like if case there is something deeply useful there.