StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Pat Martino

This week, we spotlight the stylings of guitarist Pat Martino, who will be back in St. Louis next month to perform Wednesday, December 4 through Saturday, December 7 at Jazz at the Bistro.

The Philadelphia native, now 69 years old, has played here numerous times over the years, most recently in December 2010 at the Bistro. StLJN featured Martino in a video showcase post then, and also recounted some of his fascinating back story in another video post before he played here in 2009. So today, we're just going to check out a selection of video clips, featuring Martino with his usual organ trio and with a couple of special collaborators.

The first video up above was recorded in 2010 at New Morning in Paris, France, and shows Martino, organist Tony Monaco and drummer Shawn Hill playing the swinging blues-with-a-bridge "On The Midnight Special." Below, you can see another clip from the same gig of the trio playing the bossa nova "The Island."

Next, we've got two samples of Martino's occasional work with the talented young pianist Eldar Djangirov. Clip number three, recorded in 2009 at the Iridium in NYC, shows Martino and Eldar playing John Coltrane's "Impressions"; number four is a version of Wes Montgomery's "Four on Six" recorded in September of this year before a rather chatty audience at Chris' Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia.

The fifth video, recoded in October of this year at KPLU radio in Seattle, features Martino, organist Pat Bianchi, drummer Carmen Intorre and special guest saxophonist James Carter on a very uptempo version of "Seven Come Eleven," the venerable swing standard made famous by Benny Goodman and Charlie Christian.

And today's final clip is an interview with Martino from 2012, in which he discusses his appearance at the Berks Jazz Fest, his autobiographical book Here and Now, and various other topics.

For more about Martino and Here and Now, check out this interview he did with WHYY in Philadelphia. You might also be interested in this review of the Martino-Eldar gig at Chris' Jazz Cafe, and this interview from July of this year, published on the Philadelphia music website JUMPPhilly.com.