Longtime JazzTimes Contributor Publishes Book with Legendary Jazz Musician Pat Martino

Longtime JazzTimes contributor Bill Milkowski collaborated with the renowned jazz guitarist Pat Martino on Here and Now! The Autobiography of Pat Martino (Applause Books/Backbeat Books; $24.99). Combining memoir with oral history, the book tells the story of Martino’s life in music with an emphasis on his recovery from a brain aneurysm in 1980 that nearly killed him and left him with severe memory loss.

Born in the Philadelphia area, Martino was a musical prodigy. By age 16, Martino was already working as a member of R&B star Lloyd Price’s touring musical revue. By age 18, he had moved to Harlem, where he quickly earned a reputation as a hard-bopping six-stringer with formidable chops through a series of apprenticeships with the likes of saxophonist Willis “Gator Tail” Jackson and organist Jack McDuff. At age 22, Martino made his debut as a bandleader with his 1967 album El Hombre on the Prestige label and followed it up with a string of potent recordings that further established him as one of the most distinctive guitar voices on the jazz scene.

Then, at the peak of his powers, the bottom fell out. In 1980, he underwent surgery following a near-fatal brain aneurysm, which left him with no memory of the guitar or his musical career. At that point, Martino began the long process of recovery, eventually relearning how to play the guitar, but, more important, learning how to transcend the instrument itself and live his life completely in the moment.

Martino has recorded over 20 albums as a leader, and continues to perform at clubs, theaters and festivals all over the world. Milkowski, who has contributed features, reviews and profiles for JazzTimes for over 20 years, is also the author of Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, also published by Backbeat Books. He was recently given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Jazz Journalists Association.