PAT MARTINO — Baiyina: The Clear Evidence (review)

PAT MARTINO — Baiyina: The Clear Evidence album cover Album · 1968 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Sean Trane
Martino’s third album on the Prestige label is probably his first major contribution to modal indo-jazz fusion as a guitarist, though the Indian-born John Mayer was a also contemporary and working with Joe Harriott in London. Though electric guitar in jazz was not exactly new (I can think of Belgian René Thomas), Martino is contemporary to Wes Montgomery and earlier than George Benson, let alone the McLaughlin or Coryell. Recorded over a single day at the beginning of the NY summer of 68, Baiyina is thought to be “a psychedelic excursion though the magical mysteries of the Koran”, whatever that means, but it sports the subtitles The Clear Evidence, which might not be obvious to everyone at first hear.

So the album is a typical fusion product of its time, and even if the word “psychedelic” is more associated with rock music, its jazz equivalent might just sound like the present album, mainly due to the transient presence of tamboura and tabla drums. The Indian music part of this album is more to do the spiritual side of things and complexities of the music (both in scales and time signatures), rather than drug use usually associated with psychedelics.

Clearly, Baiyina is a groundbreaking foray in Indo-jazz fusion, and maybe even one of the precursors in the territory.

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