Pat Martino
Impressions

"Impressions" is a collection that doesn't have much to do with the album of the same name, also by Pat. In this double CD, we find gathered three albums from Pat Martino's early period: P.M. Live ('72), Consciousness ('74), and Exit ('76). The last production before the brain surgery that would make him lose his memory and the ability to play and create the wonderful music that he would later reclaim at the cost of epic sacrifices.

The first three tracks "Special Door," "The Great Stream," and "Sunny" are fiery, intensely driven, and full of phrases delivered at an incredible pace. Pat Martino played (and still plays) the guitar like a soprano sax or a mono-tone instrument, with few scattered chords and a bunch of notes and phrases reiterating and elaborating the relentless harmonic progression, but with uncommon creativity and good taste. It's no coincidence that most of his production is backed by a piano, acoustic or more often electric, to provide the necessary harmonic foundation. The tracks from the second album follow: Impressions, Consciousness, Passata On Guitar (solo guitar), Along Came Betty, Willow, On The Stairs, Both Sides Now, Along Came Betty (alternate). In "Passata," we don't find traces of tomatoes, but rather the reaffirmation of an undisputed guitar master, a pure and original stylist tackling a ballad for solo guitar, poignant yet succinct and complete. Anthony Jackson, inventor of the "contrabass guitar" (virtually the now-standard six-string electric bass) and a revered and busy musician on the USA's east coast (Steve Khan above all, by the way: dig around and find something from this other wild and eclectic guitarist, maybe "All Access") openly declares that he owes his ENTIRE musical training to an afternoon spent with Pat Martino, who enlightened him with a couple of sheets of scales and preparatory exercises.

The last album included in the double CD contains Exit, Come Sunday, Three Base Hit, Days Of Wine And Roses, Blue Bossa, I Remember Clifford, reminding us that he is a true militant jazz musician (standards are the eternal testing ground) with his attributes in the right place, and as a testament to this, a young and dazzling Gil Goldstein is present on the piano (now an established producer and arranger, see also Diana Krall's live in Paris, etc., etc.). The constant with Pat Martino has always been Sherman Ferguson, a polyhedral, intelligent, and inventive drummer; a necessary counterpoint to an angular and square guitar playing, seeking references. In his last period, he recorded with the best young talents (Joyous Lake), always delivering splendid and original music, never overused. Musicians that come to mind for comparisons and to give an idea to those unfamiliar with the subject are mid-era Trane for inventiveness and exploration, McLaughlin for unparalleled guitar technique, and Gato Barbieri, but the latter more for Pat's verbosity than anything else. However, unlike Gato, Pat occasionally stops completely and leaves ample space to his sidemen.

Final notes of interest: Pat Martino (born Azzara) only plays with handmade guitars; he is rarely seen with production guitars, and his "action" is about a finger's width (between the string bottom and the fretboard), but in exchange, he uses sets where the high E string is 0.15 if not 0.16. Guitarists "know" what difficulty that involves! Hooray for Pat.