PAT MARTINO Along Came Betty

This is one of Benny Golson's more famous compositions, but it was not composed to be played as a fast bossa nova. That was down to guitarist Pat Martino's genius.

According to Ted Gioia in his seminal The Jazz Standards, "The melody starts out with an insistent three-note-phrase ... but immediately moves into variations and elaborations on it. This reflect a recurring tension in Golson's compositional style, which wants to embrace the familiar riffs of swing and bop, but seems to be more eager to push them aside as soon as possible and enter into a Jazz equivalent of the development of sonata form. Where other composers might opt to repeat, he prefers to manipulate. This is more than a matter of melody but is also reflected in the underlying harmonies. The modulations start almost immediately, and the second eight bars are already in a different key."

In my opinion, one would be hard-pressed to find a better guitar Jazz solo than the one Pat plays on this version of Benny Golson's "Along Came Betty."