Taking what he needs

Jennifer K Mahal

Pat Martino focuses on the moment. It is important for the

58-year-old jazz guitarist not to allow the vagueness of the past or

the uncertainty of the future to make him immobile.

Martino will play the Orange County Performing Arts Center today

with organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Byron Landham.

His need to deal with life on the basis of the now has a lot to do

with the brain aneurysm that robbed him of his past and his music in

the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Martino had to relearn the guitar after

the surgery he underwent to correct the aneurysm left him with

amnesia.

Martino first learned to pick the strings at age 11 going on 12,

inspired by his father, who played as a hobby.

“He picked it up once a week on Saturday,” the guitarist said of

his dad, who often took his son to Philadelphia clubs. “He would

strum the chords. ... I’m really fortunate to be able to remember.”

Relearning the guitar was “very interesting in terms of priority,”

Martino said. “It had nothing to do with music being the priority. It

had to do with enjoyment being the priority.”

Listening to his fingers fly over the strings on Sonny Rollin’s

“Oleo” or quietly pick slow sweet notes in Miles Davis’ “All Blues”

from the 2001 release “Live at Yoshi’s,” it’s not hard to believe

he’s having fun. It inspires awe.

It was difficult, Martino said, to accept his history in jazz,

that he was a well-respected artist with recordings such as “East!”

on Prestige Records and “Consciousness” on Muse Records.

Willis Jackson, Jack McDuff and Trudy Pitts are only a few of the

names he worked with.

“I didn’t believe what I was told,” Martino said.

When he chose to pick the strings again, it was not a career

decision. Instead, it was an internal quest. Music, said the

guitarist who returned to the stage in 1984, helps him to evolve and

grow as a person.

“I take it out of the container when I need it and I don’t let it

govern what it brings to me,” Martino said.

Playing in a group allows Martino social interaction and helps him

to peer into his soul.

“I like to be able to see how I react, so that the mistakes ...

can be solved and learned,” he said, “and I learn more about myself

in the process.”