Pat Martino - Calm Before the Storm - Veryl Oakland

© Copyright ® Steven Cerra, copyright protected; all rights reserved.

This piece on guitarist Pat Martino who passed away in November, 2021 at the age of 77 is from photographer/essayist Veryl Oakland’s exquisite work Jazz in Available Light: Illuminating the Jazz Greats from the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

You can find more background about the book as well as order information via this link to an earlier posting on Veryl’s book on these pages.

True to the northern California geographic area denoted in his last name, Veryl photographed Jazz musicians primarily at the Berkeley Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival and at various clubs in the San Francisco area like Keystone Korner.

Although from Philadelphia and an East Coast cat during most of his playing days, guitarist Pat Martino signed with southern California based Warner Brothers Music in the 1970s and the record label brought him to California to promote his recordings which is when Veryl had the opportunity to take the commercial photographs that populate this post.

The in-performance photos date back to the 1967 inaugural Berkeley Jazz Festival when Veryl first heard Pat as a member of saxophonist John Handy’s group along with Bobby Hutchinson on vibes, Albert “Sparky” Stinson on bass and Doug Sides on drums.