Hard Bop Clarity in Martino's Early Voice
Martino was already developing his own sound and is in excellent form on straightforward hard bop.
East! was recorded in 1968 when Pat Martino was still finding his footing as a bandleader, and the session captures that moment clearly. Working with Eddie Green on piano, Tyrone Brown on bass, and Lenny McBrowne on drums, Martino built a tight hard bop quartet that sounds exactly like what it is: young players in command of their language, not chasing trends or exotic angles. The cover and title might suggest Far Eastern influences, but that's mostly marketing noise. What's on the tape is direct and American—the blues refracted through bebop changes, delivered with the kind of clarity AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow heard when he gave it 4½ stars.
Martino's soloing stands out across these tracks. He wasn't yet the virtuoso speed merchant he'd become, but he had articulation and presence, landing phrases with precision rather than throwing everything at the wall. The rhythm section never overcomplicates things. Green comps efficiently, Brown anchors without flash, and McBrowne keeps time that swings without calling attention to itself. Ben Tucker adds tambourine color on select moments, a small textural touch that works. The Penguin Guide to Jazz captured it well: these are some of Martino's clearest and most articulate solos, built on a foundation that stays out of the way.
East! sits early in Martino's discography, before the technical sophistication and theoretical depth that would define his later work. It's not a masterpiece, but it's solid evidence of a guitarist already in control of his instrument and his ideas. Start here if you want to hear Martino without the later complexity—just a musician and a working band playing what they knew.
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