Paul Martino is a giant....
I dont know whom is the "better" guitarist ever in jazz or in other musical cultural field,but the most hypnotic strings player i ever listen to is Ostad Elahi, mystic and supreme master of tanbur...
Incredibly in spite of their style being totally different, and their associated intentions to be completely different, Martino seems to be on par with some of the very few musicians i idolized ON HIS OWN TERMS...
It is not his mastery of the instrument itself and his virtuosity that impress me so much, after all we dont lack great admirable virtuosos on any instrument and especially at guitar and Martino is undoubtedly one ...
What struck me without being able to cut off any of the few albums i had picked is the fine line he drawed while playing between melodic and harmonic and rythmic meanings and the improvisional endless flow which fly but ALWAYS stay grounded in a very rich and various vocabulary that NEVER weighted heavily on his music style in restricting his musicality and and vision to some too " common place" aspects ...Martino played FREE out of his his own soul with "no speed limits" and here i dont spoke about his virtuosity much than i adress to his "personal grammar", which is "the less the rules the better it is", it seems that there exist no constraining laws to impede his vision....He use music and music dont impose nothing on him....His phrasing is obsessionnal like a mystic speaking of his god....
I think his music is related to the spiritual conendrum of his lifelong health problem and related to some spritual identity problem... How a tumor in the left hemisphere of the brain must be controlled in his destructive power and enslaved to force and nourrish new roads of creativity from this brain? Anyway....
It instantaneously became my favorite guitarist and string artist, just under or beside, the greatest master of the plucked string family i ever heard.... Ostad Elahi.... Which is near miraculous for me.....
Listen to his "Formidable" album and call that a day not only in your jazz journey but probably in your musical and spiritual journey .....
I am stunned though that none of the albums i listened to were acoustically very good... Only acceptable like those of Ostad Elahi that are sometimes worst...
But it was impossible to cut it and search for "beautiful acoustically recording " new music...Impossible because it grip you hypnotically without mercy if you dare to listen to his music....His music express a CONTINUOUSLY perfect control of the structuring blocks without any loss of fluidity....His fingers are able to weave a flawless tapestry for hours and a very detailed one on all counts.....He is one of my few god for sure now....
I dont understand why a so great musician is not more well deservedly known and with more money to register with the top recording engineer of the US...
Some album change our musical life forever this is one....
Thanks to frogman and other whom draw my attention to him....
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLccpwGk_xup-cSFE63jfhGSF-e1eWbyhl
I dont know whom is the "better" guitarist ever in jazz or in other musical cultural field,but the most hypnotic strings player i ever listen to is Ostad Elahi, mystic and supreme master of tanbur...
Incredibly in spite of their style being totally different, and their associated intentions to be completely different, Martino seems to be on par with some of the very few musicians i idolized ON HIS OWN TERMS...
It is not his mastery of the instrument itself and his virtuosity that impress me so much, after all we dont lack great admirable virtuosos on any instrument and especially at guitar and Martino is undoubtedly one ...
What struck me without being able to cut off any of the few albums i had picked is the fine line he drawed while playing between melodic and harmonic and rythmic meanings and the improvisional endless flow which fly but ALWAYS stay grounded in a very rich and various vocabulary that NEVER weighted heavily on his music style in restricting his musicality and and vision to some too " common place" aspects ...Martino played FREE out of his his own soul with "no speed limits" and here i dont spoke about his virtuosity much than i adress to his "personal grammar", which is "the less the rules the better it is", it seems that there exist no constraining laws to impede his vision....He use music and music dont impose nothing on him....His phrasing is obsessionnal like a mystic speaking of his god....
I think his music is related to the spiritual conendrum of his lifelong health problem and related to some spritual identity problem... How a tumor in the left hemisphere of the brain must be controlled in his destructive power and enslaved to force and nourrish new roads of creativity from this brain? Anyway....
It instantaneously became my favorite guitarist and string artist, just under or beside, the greatest master of the plucked string family i ever heard.... Ostad Elahi.... Which is near miraculous for me.....
Listen to his "Formidable" album and call that a day not only in your jazz journey but probably in your musical and spiritual journey .....
I am stunned though that none of the albums i listened to were acoustically very good... Only acceptable like those of Ostad Elahi that are sometimes worst...
But it was impossible to cut it and search for "beautiful acoustically recording " new music...Impossible because it grip you hypnotically without mercy if you dare to listen to his music....His music express a CONTINUOUSLY perfect control of the structuring blocks without any loss of fluidity....His fingers are able to weave a flawless tapestry for hours and a very detailed one on all counts.....He is one of my few god for sure now....
I dont understand why a so great musician is not more well deservedly known and with more money to register with the top recording engineer of the US...
Some album change our musical life forever this is one....
Thanks to frogman and other whom draw my attention to him....
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLccpwGk_xup-cSFE63jfhGSF-e1eWbyhl