American jazz guitarist and composer. Pat Martino was one of the most admired jazz artists from the 1960s until he stopped playing in 2018 as a result of the respiratory illness that took his life when he was 77. Considered a technically phenomenal bebop musician, he began playing at age 12, inspired by his dad in Philadelphia, who'd been a singer and guitar player. Perhaps fortunately, Pat was kicked out of his Catholic high school when he was in tenth grade and started playing professionally in his teens. Early on, he played with Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, and Bobby Darin, then recorded with jazz artists such as Charles Earland, Jack McDuff, Les Paul, Red Holloway, Slide Hampton, and Lloyd Price. In the Sixties and early Seventies, he made the experimental Asian- and Arabic-influenced albums "East!," "Baiyini (The Clear Evidence)," and "Consciousness." In 1980, at the age of 36, he suffered a severe brain aneurysm. The surgery he had saved his life, but left him with almost no memory. He didn't recognize his parents at his bedside in the hospital and had no recollection of his career or of how to play the guitar. He spent years relearning the instrument, and came out of the experience feeling that it had been something of a gift, as his playing became more expressive, with less of an emphasis on pure technical virtuosity. Some of his notable second-career albums include "All Sides Now" (1997) and "Undeniable: Live at Blues Alley" (2011). Regarding jazz and his role in it, he had this to say: "Jazz is a way of life. It's not an idiom of music. Jazz is spontaneous improvisation. If you ever leave your house with nowhere to go, and just walk for pleasure, observing and looking around, you'll find that you improvise."He did not identify himself essentially as a guitar player "because I don't want to be depersonalized by my instrument. I'm an observer of my environment, including the guitar; I see the guitar in everything."