Pat Martino Biography

Pat Martino (born Pat Azzara, August 25, 1944) in South Philadelphia is an Italian-American jazz guitarist and composer. He began playing the guitar at a young age, and began playing professionally at age 15. Pat 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 Jack McDuff, Trudy Pitts, Jimmy Smith, Don Patterson, and Richard Groove Holmes. Throughout the 60's and 70's, Pat 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, Pat made a remarkable 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 Pat's jazz masterpiece East! on Ultradisc UHR SACD. Martino currently tours worldwide.