ABSTRACT
Pat Martino ranks among the outstanding jazz guitarists of the last few decades: a gifted player with a keen grasp of mainstream jazz. Martino’s work with Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, and Don Patterson is well known to jazz organ aficionados. Speaking about music education and the training of young guitarists, Martino says the following:
Martino’s view that “music is a language, like any other language” is widespread among jazz musicians. Here, for example, is a musician’s description of guitarist Jim Hall:
“His concept of time is a model to emulate,” says drummer Joey Baron. “Jim plays but a few notes, leaving space for conversations with me.” According to Jim, “listening is still the key.” Such “conversational” imagery dominates the genre. . . . A particularly vivid description is provided by drummer Max Roach:
The imagery is hardly confined to performers: jazz writers, noting the constant interplay and feedback sustaining the collaborative improvisational process, inevitably lapse into a “linguistic” perspective. Thus Martin Williams: “Ornette Coleman’s musical language is the product of a mature man who must speak through his horn. Every note seems to be born out of a need to communicate.”
