Pat Martino Biography – Pat Martino Wiki
Pat Martino born Patrick Azzara was an American jazz guitarist and composer. His professional career in music and instrumentals started at the age of 15, and in the end, he came out as one of the great jazz-based guitarists of the 1960s.
Martino is acknowledged far and wide for his 1967 album, El Hombre. He debuted at the age of 22 with his Grant Green-influenced soul-jazz album which immediately introduced him as a guitarist with a promising future. Organ (courtesy of Trudy Pitts) features prominently, imbuing the album with an archetypal mid-60s soul-jazz aesthetic. Even though he was relatively young, he already had his own sound and style.
He worked early on with groups led by Willis Jackson, Red Holloway, and a series of organists, including Don Patterson, Jimmy Smith, Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes, and Jimmy McGriff. After playing with John Handy (1966), he began leading his own bands and heading sessions for Prestige, Muse, and Warner Bros that found him venturing to the influences of avant-garde jazz, rock, pop, and world music into his advanced hard bop style.
Martino released a number of critically beloved albums with Blue Note including 1997’s All Sides Now and 1998’s Stone Blue (with Joyous Lake). In 2001, he released a live album recorded at Yoshi’s in California. In 2003, he teamed with saxophonist Joe Lovano for Think Tank. Additionally, Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery appeared on Blue Note in 2006.
He was chosen as Guitar Player of the Year in the Down Beat magazine Readers’ Poll of 2004. In 2006, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab reissued his album East! on Ultradisc UHR SACD. In 2017, he shot a series of educational videos entitled A Study of the Opposites and How They Manifest on the Guitar.
Some of the awards he gained in his career include: the 1995 Mellon Jazz Festival dedicated in honor, the 1996 Philadelphia Alliance Walk of Fame Award, the 2003 Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Think Tank, and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo on “Africa”, the 2004 Guitar Player of the Year, DownBeat Magazine’s 2004 Readers’ Poll, and the 2016 Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes and his wife Sheryl Lee Ralph-Hughes presented Pat Martino with the Jazz Legacy Award among others.
Pat Martino Age
He was born on August 25, 1944, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, and died on November 1, 2021. He was 77 years.
Pat Martino Wife
Until he died, he was married to his wife Ayako Asahi Martino, whom he met in Tokyo, Japan, in 1995. The couple went ahead to get married in 1997.
Pat Martino Parents
He was born and brought up by his mother Carmen Azzara.
Pat Martino Death
Pat Martino passed away at the age of 77 on Monday, November 1, 2021. The news of his demise was confirmed by his manager, Joe Donofrio according to udiscovermusic.
He was forced on to make a remarkable comeback after brain surgery in 1980 to correct an aneurysm that caused him to lose his memory and completely forget how to play.
Pat Martino Cause of Death
The cause of his death has not been stated yet. In the past, in 1980, he suffered a hemorrhaged arteriovenous malformation that caused a near-fatal seizure. This left him with amnesia and no recollection or knowledge of his career or how to play the guitar.
