Sacred Geometry An Analysis of Pat Martino’s Improvisations on Just Friends and Welcome To A Prayer Presented at the Royal Musical Association Conference

Pat Martino commands high status in the world of jazz, for his prodigious talents as a teenage jazz phenomenon, numerous awards, recording output and his remarkable recovery from extreme amnesia following a life-saving brain operation in 1980. Martino has been particularly praised, from a young age, for his ability to execute long seamless improvised lines with a rhythmic feel which somehow manages to be both precise and relaxed (Fewell 1996). This particular time-feel is evident on Martino's performance on the jazz standard Just Friends from his debut album El Hombre (Martino 1962, extract Example1.mp3). The tune is performed at around 230bpm, ≈260ms per crotchet, so a keen listener able to distinguish 13ms time differentials may perceive 5% slivers of the beat. This would imply the ability to distinguish at best five levels of swing from straight to 70%, and a similar number of values from-10% to +15% latency. A swing and latency analysis of the melody and first improvised chorus reveals swing values mainly in the 50-63% range and latency (where possible to derive) is almost exclusively positive (behind the beat), largely occurring from 0 to +15% range. The calculation of latency, not always possible, was made in reference to the drums, which commanded a time-line monopoly for the purposes of this analysis.