Jazz Guitar Primer, Page Two

[continued from page one: Introduction to Jazz Guitar Music: A Jazz Guitar Primer]

Pat Martino (1944- )

While there have been many great jazz guitarists over the years, Pat Azzara, or Pat Martino as he was later known, may be considered as the genre's wunderkind. Martino began playing the guitar at a very early age and with the encouragement of his father, an accomplished guitarist himself, pursued guitar lessons with a local teacher in Philadelphia. By the age of 13, Martino had made significant progress and started studying with local guitar legend Dennis Sandole, who was one of John Coltrane’s early teachers. After studying with Sandole for a few years, Martino, and those around him, felt that he was ready to pursue a career as a professional guitarist and should move to New York to do so, all before he could legally drive a car.

Though Martino had to pay his dues when he first arrived on the jazz scene, he was able to impress all the right people and quickly began to make a name for himself as the new guitarist on the block. He performed and recorded with many of the top players of the time, including Eric Kloss, Willis Jackson and Jack McDuff. At a time when most guitarists were striving to become the next Wes Montgomery, Martino was looking beyond what Wes had accomplished and strove to push the boundaries of post-bop guitar. His ability to stream endless eighth-note lines and perform them at any tempo, quickly set Martino apart from his peers. His hard-driving, eighth-note feel, has become the envy of many players since his arrival on the scene, and his inspiration can be heard in countless post-bop and modern guitarists.

Whereas most pre-1970s guitarists had learned their craft by listening to recordings and gaining valuable experience on the bandstand, Martino combined these time-tested practices with an intellectual approach to improvising that would reinvent how guitarists approached learning the instrument. Instead of relying on scale patterns and licks to develop his linear concept, Martino decided it would be better to relate all of his knowledge to the basic chord shapes that he already knew. Though this approach is similar in manner to how Joe Pass saw the guitar, Martino was to simplify things one step further by only working off of minor7 chord shapes. By learning all of his lines, patterns, scales and arpeggios in four positions on the neck, one for each inversion of a sixth string minor7 chord, Martino was able to quickly access all of this information in a quick and concise manner. This allowed him to perform seemingly endless runs of eighth-note lines, something that had rarely been done by guitarists before him, while still maintaining a high level of musicality. Martino’s called this approach the “minor conversion” method of improvising, which he has described in great detail in his method books entitled Linear Expressions and Creative Force.

Though some guitarists have found Martino’s minor conversion method to be a bit formulaic, this system would help save Martino’s career during the 1980s. After having climbed to the highest echelon of the jazz guitar world during the 1970s, tragedy struck when in 1980 he underwent surgery as the result of a brain aneurysm. Though the surgery was successful, one of the side effects was that Martino suffered from amnesia leaving him with no memories of the guitar or his musical career.

While this would have killed the careers of most musicians, Martino was not going to let this incident deter him from furthering his life as a professional musician. With the help of friends and family, Martino re-taught himself to play the guitar by listening to and transcribing his old recordings. Martino’s minor conversion approach to the guitar allowed him to quickly re-learn the instrument as it gave him a clear and concise way in which to view the guitar. Instead of having to re-learn all of the nuances that he had perfected during countless hours of practicing and performing before his surgery, Martino was able to quickly relate all of the lines and patterns he was hearing in his recordings to the four minor7 chord shapes described in the minor conversion system. Not only has Martino used this approach to great success over the years, both before and after his aneurysm, but countless professional and amateur guitarists have benefited from learning this system. This is evident in the fact that Martino’s method books and DVDs have become some of the best-selling jazz guitar instructional materials over the past few decades.

While Martino may be better known as a performer, he has always been a respected guitar teacher as well. Though he has only recently chosen to teach in a college setting (he is now on the faculty of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia) Martino has always taken on private students, even in his younger days. He has also released a series of instructional books and DVDs that are considered "must haves" by many jazz guitar students and teachers. Many of his students tell stories about how generous Martino was with his time during their studies with him, and how encouraging he was to the younger and more inexperienced players, something that can be rare with a player as accomplished as Martino.

After taking a six-year break to recover from his aneurysm and a seven-year break while he took time to care of his sick parents, Martino has returned to the top of the jazz guitar world. He continues to perform regularly throughout the world as well as release new recordings and DVDs of teaching material. Though his life’s path has taken several rocky turns, Martino shows no signs of slowing down. With a performing career that has spanned more than 50 years, Martino continues to wow audiences with his virtuosity while inspiring many guitarists to explore the world of jazz guitar through his recordings and instructional materials.

Essential Listening
El Hombre
Strings
Footprints
Live
Live at Yoshi’s

Essential Publications
Modern Guitars Interview
Pat Martino the Early Years
Linear Expressions
Creative Force

John McLaughlin (1942- )

During the British Invasion of the mid-1960s many young guitarists were influenced by the new sounds they heard emanating from radios and television screens. Guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and Jeff Beck were taking American blues and rock music to new heights with hard driving riffs and soaring guitar solos, while on the other side of the Atlantic a young Jimi Hendrix was turning heads with his highly unique approach to the instrument. Up until this point, jazz had remained rather close to its swing and blues roots, but that was all to change in the late '60s when a young guitarist named John McLaughlin was asked to join Miles Davis’ band to record the landmark albums In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew. McLaughlin’s background was highly diverse and contained as much American blues and rock 'n' roll as it did the avante garde side of jazz. By allowing himself to embrace these different genres in his playing McLaughlin, helped create a style of jazz that is now called “jazz fusion” or simply “fusion,” where traditional jazz elements are mixed with blues and rock, especially psychedelic rock, elements.

When one listens to an early recording of a McLaughlin tune or solo it is easy to hear how much of an influence guitarists such as Hendrix, Clapton and Page had on his playing. Though most jazz guitarists had used the blues scale, and the accompanying pentatonic scale, in their playing, none had been able to use the scale as effectively or creatively as McLaughlin. Instead of playing his blues ideas in a manner similar to other guitarists such as Wes Montgomery or Pat Martino, who tended to play the blues scale relative to the key they were in at the time, McLaughlin experimented using the scale in a similar fashion to the avant garde saxophonists of the time such as John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. He was constantly experimenting with side-stepping his blues licks, where he would play a lick through two or more keys in a single passage, as well as simply playing outside of the key during his solos. By being one of the first guitarists to use these techniques, alongside his use of distortion and incredibly loud volumes, McLaughlin put himself on the edge of the experimental music scene of the 1960s and early '70s. While he was being branded as the flag-bearing guitarist of the jazz fusion movement in the late 1960s, the '70s were to bring vast changes to McLaughlin’s musical direction.

In 1971, McLaughlin released an album entitled My Goals Beyond that brought two new influences, the acoustic guitar and Indian classical music, that have remained in his playing to this day. The album was recorded unamplified and features some beautiful acoustic guitar work that was highly influenced by McLaughlin’s love of Indian classical music. Shortly after this album was released, McLaughlin returned to the electric guitar when he formed the band Mahavishnu Orchestra. Though he was playing with his familiar distorted tone and hard-driving, rock-influenced solos, McLaughlin was bringing a heavy influence of Indian music into his playing and writing with the new band. His use of odd time signatures , coming from his study of Indian ragas and other forms, were to have a lasting effect on future generations of guitarists and composers. For those who are unfamiliar with this concept, an odd time signature is simply one that does not divide the bar into 2, 3, or 4 beats as is common in traditional Western music. Most of McLaughlin’s pieces that have been written in this style use time signatures such as 5/4, 7/4, 9/8, 11/8, 15/8, 12/8 and other odd combinations of beats. McLaughlin has continued to be inspired by Indian classical music to this day though since the break up of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, he has often used acoustic instruments when writing and performing in this style, especially with his long running group Shakti.

At the same time that McLaughlin was experimenting with Indian classical music in his writing and playing, he was also developing a love for the acoustic guitar in a rock/blues/jazz setting. In the early 1980s McLaughlin joined fellow acoustic guitarists Paco De lucia and Al DiMeola for a concert tour that culminated with a live recording entitled Friday Night in San Francisco. The record would go on to sell more than a million copies and has become one of the most influential and highly respected guitar recordings of the past 100 years. During this time McLaughlin also made several landmark recordings with electric groups including his work with the Trio of Doom. The trio consisted of McLaughlin on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass and Tony Williams on drums and the music is a direct descendant of the Miles Davis fusion recordings of the late 1960s. The vast contrast of these two groups, as well as the Indian-influenced ensembles, shows McLaughlin’s ability to transcend musical genres and perform music at the highest level in any style. This ability has made him one of the most sought after touring guitarists and a first-call studio musician.

Over the years, McLaughlin’s playing has had an influence on many guitarists, including John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Al DiMeola and many others. Today, his newly released instructional DVDs and latest recordings are exposing a whole new generation of guitarists to the possibilities of jazz fusion, odd time signatures and highly chromatic playing. While his musical directions and tastes have changed over the years his passion and love of the guitar and music have remained. With a new album out (Floating Point) and a steady schedule of tour dates on the books, it looks like McLaughlin could be around to influence a few more generations before he’s done.

Essential Listening
The Inner Mounting Flame
Bitches Brew
Remember Shakti: The Way of Beauty
Extrapolation

Essential Publications
Go Ahead John: The Music of John McLaughlin
The Gateway to Rhythm (DVD)

Pat Metheny (1954 - )

When, as a high school student, Pat Metheny was sneaking out of his parent’s house in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, to play gigs in Kansas City jazz clubs, little did he know that he would become the lead voice of the jazz guitar world for the next 40 years. At an early age it became apparent that Metheny was a child prodigy when it came to the guitar and to jazz music in particular. Besides sitting in with jazz bands in the Kansas City area, Metheny became the youngest faculty member at both the University of Miami and the Berklee College of Music when he taught at both schools before the age of 20. This early success would be indicative of a career that has spanned more than 30 years and that has produced over 50 albums that range from solo recordings to large jazz ensembles and orchestras. Metheny is not just one of the most productive jazz guitarists, he is also one of the most decorated. Metheny has been nominated for 30 Grammy awards and has won 17 of them, including a streak of ten consecutive wins with the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny has also been named guitarist of the year, in both the reader and critic polls, numerous times, in Downbeat and Jazz Times magazines.

With a widely diverse set of influences, it is not surprising that Metheny has developed a very distinctive playing style that has become easily recognizable as his own. Having been influenced by rock guitarists such as Jimi Hedrix and Eric Clapton, jazz guitarists Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass, and a wide variety of world music (especially the traditional music of Brazil), Metheny has developed a playing style that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional categorization. One of the reasons Metheny has developed a highly recognizable sound is his unorthodox right and left-hand technique. While most jazz guitarists work for years on developing a “correct” right and left-hand technique, Metheny simply went with what felt comfortable when he first began learning the instrument. His unorthodox approach to picking and the way he grips the neck with his left hand have allowed Metheny to develop a very personalized style of legato playing that has often been imitated but never duplicated. As well as being an influential single-line player, Metheny’s extensive use of slash and polychords has greatly expanded the harmonic possibilities of the instrument.

One of the things that make Metheny stand out from his peers is that he is a prolific composer as well as a world-class performer. Over his 30-year recording and performing career, Metheny has managed to write and co-write over 400 pieces for a wide variety of ensembles that cover a wide variety of styles including jazz, fusion, rock/pop, Latin and world music. While Metheny has written many pieces on his own, a large number of his works have been co-written with Pat Metheny Group pianist Lyle Mays. The duo has been so successful on both a commercial and an artistic level that they have often been compared to the great pop music writing partners Simon and Garfunkel, and John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Metheny has also been highly influential in the development and implementation of new guitars and guitar technologies. While John McLaughlin and Pat Martino had used the electric twelve-string guitar on jazz recording in the last 1960s, Metheny was one of the first jazz guitarists to experiment with alternate tunings on the instrument. Alongside Ralph Towner, who was using alternate tunings on the acoustic twelve-string guitar, Metheny is credited with expanding the tonal capabilities of the instrument as well as developing a wider respect for a guitar that is sometimes seen as a novelty in the jazz world. Metheny has also gone beyond the twelve-string guitar with his use of the forty-two string “Pikasso” guitar built by Toronto luthier Linda Manzer. The instrument looks more like a cross between a harp and a lute than a guitar and is incredibly difficult to play. While guitarists in other genres have used similar instruments, including Michael Hedges with his harp guitar, Metheny has been one of the only jazz musicians to experiment with the instrument and has recorded and performed with it in both solo and ensemble settings.

While most jazz guitarists tend to lean towards a more acoustic sound for their recordings and performances, Metheny has always favored a more electric, effect-driven sound with his tone. Aside from being a pioneer with the use of reverb and delay in a jazz setting, Metheny was one of the earliest proponents of the guitar synthesizer. Metheny began using the Roland GR300 guitar synthesizer in the later 1970s at the same time as fellow guitarists John Abercrombie and Bill Frissel, though Metheny is the only one of these three sonic pioneers who is still using the instrument today. The guitar synthesizer is used to emulate the sounds of string, horn, woodwind and percussion instruments by feeding the sound of the guitar through a midi processor. Metheny’s ability to use the synthesizer as a musical instrument and not just a as a novelty item has given him a second sonic palette from which to work when writing and performing, one that has such a unique sound that it has become synonymous with the Pat Metheny Group and Metheny’s playing in general.

Considering the success that Metheny has achieved as both a performer and composer, it is not surprising that he has had a huge influence on subsequent generations of guitarists. Players such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Adam Rogers and Jonathan Kreisberg have all drawn influences from Metheny’s performing and writing. His albums are considered "must haves" by many jazz guitar fans and his solos are often required learning by many jazz programs in leading universities and colleges. Though Metheny has achieved much over the course of his career, he shows no signs of slowing down. He maintains a steady output of recordings and maintains a schedule of almost 200 live performances each year as both a leader and a sideman.

Essential Listening
Shadows and Light
Bright Size Life
80/81
Question and Answer
Trio Live

Essential Publications
Pat Metheny Songbook
Question and Answer
One Quiet Night

Further Information, Reading and Listening

Other Notable Jazz Guitarists
Barney Kessel - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Kessel
Herb Ellis - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Ellis
Jim Hall - www.jimhallmusic.com/
Lenny Breau - www.guitarchives.com
Ted Greene - www.tedgreene.com
John Scofield - www.johnscofield.com
John Abercrombie - www.johnabercrombie.com
Mike Stern - www.mikestern.org
Bill Frissell - www.billfrissell.com
Kurt Rosenwinkel – www.kurtrosenwinkel.com
Adam Rogers – www.adamrogersmusic.com
Ben Monder – www.benmonder.com

Further Listening/Viewing
Legends of Jazz Guitar Volume 1, 2, 3 – Vestapol DVD
Progressions: 100 Years of Jazz Guitar – Sony Boxed Set

Further Reading
Larry Coryell Modern Guitars Interview
Beginning Jazz Guitar – Book/DVD by Jody Fisher
Hal Leonard Guitar Method: Jazz Guitar – Jeff Schroedl
Voices in Jazz Guitar – Joe Barth
The Jazz Theory Book – Mark Levine

About Dr. Matt Warnock
Dr. Warnock has performance certificates from the Royal Conservatory as well as degrees from McGill University, Western Michigan University and the University of Illinois. He is currently professor of guitar at Western Illinois University and is the jazz guitar instructor at the Interlochen Arts Camp, and has taught at Western Michigan University and the University of Illinois. He has studied with Roddy Ellias, Fred Hersch, Tom Knific, Gene Bertoncini, Jack Grassell, Chip McNeill, Billy Hart, Ben Monder, Jim McNeeley, Elliane Ellias, Marc Johnson, Jake Langley and Theo Bleckmann and has performed with Slide Hampton, Darmon Meador, Jim Pugh, Jim McNeeley, Chip McNeill, Joel Spencer, Roddy Ellias, Tom Knific, Keith Hall, Stefon Harris, Glenn Wilson and Randy Brecker. He also writes for Just Jazz Guitar, Fingerstyle Guitar, the Jazz Guitar Gazette, Jazz Guitar Life, is a freelance contractor with Hal Leonard, and has co-authored a book of Kurt Rosenwinkel transcriptions for Mel Bay. Links: www.mattwarnockguitar.com and www.myspace.com/mattwarnockguitar.

Recommended Article
Introduction to Classical Guitar Music: A Classical Guitar Primer, by Dr. Matthew Warnock

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