Pat Martino - Tribute to Django Reinhardt - Nuages

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Pat Martino performs Nuages as a tribute to Django Reinhardt. Please note that this is strictly a performance video for our youtube channel and is not part of the lesson series.

One of the most original of the jazz-based guitarists to emerge in the 1960s, Pat Martino made a remarkable comeback after brain surgery in 1980 to correct an aneurysm caused him to lose his memory and completely forget how to play. It took years, but he regained his ability, partly by listening to his older records. Martino began playing professionally when he was 15. 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 started leading his own bands and heading sessions for Prestige, Muse, and Warner Bros. that found him welcoming the influences of avant-garde jazz, rock, pop, and world music into his advanced hard bop style. After the operation, Martino did not resume playing until 1984, making his recording comeback with 1987's The Return. Although not as active as earlier, Pat Martino has regained his earlier form, recording again for Muse and Evidence; he later signed with Blue Note, issuing All Sides Now in 1996, followed two years later by Stone Blue and in 1998 by Fire Dance. In 2001 Martino released a live album recorded at Yoshi's in California. Two years later he teamed with saxophonist Joe Lovano for Think Tank. Remember: A Tribute to Wes Montgomery appeared on Blue Note in 2006.

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[centrosperimentalepedagogi]

Nice to have met you and worked with you Pat.... We'll miss you ....

[DjangoThunders]

Django is smiling down from Heaven! Pat Martino has a wonderful soul.

[MarkBlackburnWPG]

PAT MARTINO - Nuages (Clouds)
Just learned of the death of one of my jazz guitar heroes, earlier this month, at age 77. The intuitive genius that is 'YouTube 2021' sent this video my way: Pat Martino's late-in-life solo rendition of Django Reinhardt's best tune, “Nuages” (Clouds) – for which Tony Bennett, 50 years on, composed a perfect lyric (and retitled the song, “All For You”).

Until this hour, I never knew the physical and mental adversities that Pat Martino heroically overcame, while building – and re-building from scratch his great skills as a jazz artist – one of Philadelphia's greatest musical sons (note below).

“I had the pleasure of creating an album called The Philadelphia Experiment with the great Pat Martino, ” wrote drummer Questlove Thompson, another Philadelphian. “A Philadelphia legend and guitar master, who even became more legendary when, at the hands of a seizure due to an arteriovenous malformation, had amnesia at age 36 in 1980 and had to start all over again. ...

“He joked with me when I asked about playing simple songs like ‘Body And Soul.’ He countered, ‘I couldn’t even play “Mary Had A Little Lamb” … let alone tell you what a lamb was.’ Can you imagine that? Just shy of 40, you suddenly forget everything, including your passion. It would have been easy to just wallow in depression and rely on friends and family to just tell you who you once were. But instead, he decided to not only start over again, but surpassed the level that took him three-plus decades to get to. He did it, advancing way, way past his pre-amnesia levels to ensure his god status. … May he rest in melody.”

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Born Patrick C. Azzara in Philadelphia, Martino was introduced to jazz through his father, who sang locally and studied guitar with Eddie Lang briefly. Martino began playing guitar himself at the age of 12 . . .

But his greatest achievement may have been recovering from surgery for a severe brain aneurysm that also damaged his memory. Through intensive study of his music, and with the help of computer technology, Martino was able to reverse the memory loss, and resumed his recording and performance career.

Prior to his death, crowdfunding efforts had raised nearly $250, 000 to help cover Martino’s medical expenses. In March, guitarist Joel Harrison dedicated an evening of his online Alternative Guitar Summit to Martino with a dozen jazz guitar masters playing Martino’s compositions. Benedetto Guitars, the company that made his signature model, built and auctioned off a guitar to contribute to the effort.

Thanks, DC Music School for sharing. Celebrated elsewhere this day [search] " Great Melody, Great Lyric, Great Rendition, Songwriting Workshop, Harmony Central "

[e-gitarrenunterrichtkoln]

man kannet nich mehr hören.... die gleiche sch... 🤣 guter mann dennnoch!! LG!!

[wowjef]

How's that beautifully subtle orchestration in the background? Never intrusive

[davidwalker]

No disrespect to any guitar virtuoso but its impossible to copy any Django solo nobody could sound as otherworldy