Pat Martino encyclopedia topics

Biography

Martino was born in South Philadelphia, began playing the guitar at a young age. His earliest lessons and fundamentals came from John Hall who had a store front studio at 1701 South Taylor Street. Mr. Hall an accomplished guitarist, was always excited about having Pat as a student. Around age twelve or thirteen Pat was brought to each lesson by his father. Mr. Hall recognized Pat's raw talent and coaxed it along, even holding Pat's fingers to the keyboard and giving him extra time and effort.

Pat took lessons from Mr. Hall for at least two years until both teacher, father, and student realized he had to go to someone who could teach him more.

Mr. Hall was extremely proud of Pat. I remember Mr.Hall telling me Pat was doing studio work for Glen Campbell and Sinatra. He was also quite disappointed when Pat's first album came out and in the liner note's it said Pat taught himself the rudiments of music. "I held the kids fingers to the strings. Gave him the extra time and encouragement, you'd think he would give me a mention"?

He learned further from Dennis Sandole, and began playing professionally at age 15. Martino played and recorded early in his career with musicians such as Willis Jackson and Eric Kloss. He also worked with many jazz organists, such as Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, Trudy Pitts, Jimmy Smith, Don Patterson, and Richard Groove Holmes. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Martino made many recordings as a sideman and also under his own name.

In 1980, Martino underwent surgery as the result of a nearly fatal brain aneurysm. The surgery left him with amnesia, leaving him, among other things, without any memory of the guitar and his musical career. With the help of friends, computers, and his old recordings, Martino made a recovery, and learned to play the guitar again. His improvisation method, "Conversion to Minor", is based upon using exclusively minor scales for soloing.

Martino's return to music started once again with the 1987 recording The Return. In 2006, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissued Martino's album East! on Ultradisc UHR SACD. As of 2007, Martino tours worldwide.