Pat Martino’s The Nature of the Guitar: An Intersection of Jazz Theory and Neo-Riemannian Theory

Abstract

This paper studies a set of instructional materials by the renowned jazz guitarist and pedagogue Pat Martino, winner of Downbeat Magazine's 2004 reader's poll for jazz guitarist of the year.The materials, titled The Nature of the Guitar, represent an ongoing project of Martino's begun in 1972.The Nature of Guitar is remarkable in its degree of overlap with Neo-Riemannian ideas.After discussing excerpts from The Nature of Guitar that engage parsimonious voice-leading, I compare Martino's analysis of John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" to that of Matthew Santa.

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