Friday, May 7, 2004 | 8:41 a.m.
Turns out, it was one of Martino's own albums. Stricken with near-complete amnesia at the time, the jazz guitar great had virtually no memory of his landmark late-1960s and 1970s recording sessions.
"I was forced to live with it, primarily because it used to come up through the floors to my small room upstairs," Martino said in a phone interview from his Philadelphia home last week. "And I didn't want to hear it."
Martino described his initial re-exposure to music after surgery to correct a brain aneurysm as "painful." In time, however, it led him back to the instrument that had been his obsession from an early age.
"I had to make a decision," Martino said. "And that decision was to look for something that would take my mind off my pain, the boredom and the depression. And that was the guitar.
"The more I played with it ... the more I became addicted to it once again, in a childish way as I had in the beginning. And subliminally, a lot of abilities began to re-emerge, just like a bicycle rode the second time. At first it's difficult and you fall off it a few times. But then you begin to absorb what you've already learned a long time ago, and your body adjusts."
Martino ultimately relearned his guitar skills and re-entered the jazz arena with 1987's "The Return." Since then, he has remained a consistent recording and touring figure, even earning a Grammy nomination for 2001's popular "Live at Yoshi's" live disc.
At 8 p.m. on Saturday, the 59-year-old Martino opens Clark County's annual "Jazz in the Park" series with a performance at the County Government Center Amphitheater.
Backing the guitarist will be a formidable rhythm section: pianist David Kikoski, bassist Essiet Okon Essiet and drummer Scott Robinson.
The quartet will play selections from Martino's latest album (last year's "Think Tank") along with songs culled from periods that have slowly seeped back into his consciousness.
"There are still gaps," Martino said. "But quite a different number of paragraphs in the history if my experience have come up subliminally, when least expected."
Martino's fourth session for Blue Note Records, "Think Tank," became an unofficial tribute to saxophone great John Coltrane, though the guitarist said that was not the initial plan.
"I had no intentions for the album to have anything to do with John Coltrane," Martino said. "But several things began to take place simultaneously that led me there."
One was Martino's decision to include a version of "The Phineas Trane," a Harold Mabern composition dedicated to pianist Phineas Newborn and Coltrane.
The second involved one of Martino's guitar students, who came to him for help with Coltrane's classic "Giant Steps" recording.
In an effort to transcend the student's "competitive need to prove that he could play through 'Giant Steps,' " Martino devised a new approach to the saxophone giant.
"The most effective solution appeared to be to take the alphabet itself and split it up with its first seven letters, A-B-C-D-E-F-G, the A minor relative scale in the key of C major," Martino said. "And to continue that 2 1/2 more times, beneath the 26 letters of the alphabet."
Using that formula, Martino and his student converted took the words "COLTRANE" and "TENOR" (Coltrane's instrument on "Giant Steps") into a series of notes. They added a improvisational section, and found themselves with an entirely new song, which Martino titled "Think Tank."
Later, when Martino entered the studio, he encountered Coltrane's influence yet again, this time emanating from the bass of Christian McBride.
"I heard Christian McBride in the corner, reminiscing with enjoyment over the bassline of Coltrane's composition 'Africa,' " Martino said. "On that album ... there were two bassists. And what stunned me was that Christian was playing both parts simultaneously."
That spontaneous moment led Martino to include a rendition of "Africa" on "Think Tank," completing the de facto Coltrane tribute.
"John Coltrane became the subject of interest in a collective period of events that spanned a brief period of time," he said.
Martino already knew a great deal about Coltrane's music, having studied as a child prodigy under Dennis Sandole, who also worked with Coltrane, a Philadelphia resident for most of his life.
It wasn't long, though, before the world's top guitarists became Martino's primary influences through face-to-face interaction.
"The first that I met was Les Paul, and we've remained friends ever since," Martino said. "The second was Johnny Smith and the third was Wes Montgomery. And after that it was Grant Green and Kenny Burrell and Joe Pass and hank Garland and Howard Roberts ..."
Since his re-emergence, Martino has once again become that same type of influential artist for young guitarists on the jazz scene today. And now, he said, he views his own instrument in a healthier light than in his first time around.
"I don't really love playing the instrument like I used to," he said. "Now I love it when it's in my hands, just as I love the telephone when it's in my hands or my computer, when I'm using it. For me, at this moment, the guitar doesn't even exist, when before it was the only thing that existed.
"The only people that I had something in common with before were guitar players, and that created a blindness that I can look back upon. It's something that brings a great deal of insight into myself."
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