PAT MARTINO
Givin' Away The Store (32 Jazz)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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A Pat Martino CD is something that pleases fusion fans, guitar fans, jazz fans, those who love a good human interest story and, in the case of Givin' Away The Store, gossip mongers alike.

Allow me to explain.

Martino's musical style isn't set in stone. He's a fine player of straight jazz and a phenomenal master of jazz/rock fusion, and Givin' Away The Store has both because it's a compilation of five different 32 Jazz releases. Different projects, different styles. Guitarists respect Martino for his tasteful, fluid style and for the fact that the man can burn with the best of them when he chooses to. And maybe even more for the fact that he rarely chooses to, prefering to say plenty with just a few beautiful notes.

This brings us to the human interest story, and Pat Martino certainly is that. In 1980, Martino suffered a brain aneurysm that left him with a near complete loss of memory. One of the things he didn't remember at all was how to play a guitar. The man actually taught himself to play again, and regained his style by listening to his own records. Nearly a decade later, he emerged with a comeback album and hasn't looked back since. An amazing man.

So what could gossip mongers care about this release? The hint is in the title: Givin' Away The Store. As legendary jazz producer Joel Dorn points out in his liner notes, that is the term most often used in connection with "best of" releases, the theory being that sales of the other albums will suffer. If you look at 32 Jazz's ratio of quality (high) to price (low), and at the rows and rows of great compilations they've put into the CD stores, you realize Givin' Away The Store could just as easily be the name of the label. Well! Who do you suppose just left 32 Jazz after creative/directional differences with his business partner? Damned shame, because Joel Dorn made 32 Jazz one of the best reissue labels on the planet, and if you look at all those jazz theme compilations, you'll notice hundreds by other jazz labels following Dorn's lead. We'll miss you Joel. Pop up again soon, please.

The final word goes to the music, as it should be. Pat Martino has always made consistantly strong albums, each track as terrific as the last, and Givin' Away The Store is a very well chosen best of. It's the Uber Martino, and it's so highly recommended that I'm out of superlatives.

Track List: The Visit * Blue In Green * Single Action * Nightwings * You Don't Know What Love Is * Along Came Betty * Sunny * I Remember Clifford * Slipback

© 2000 - DJ Johnson