Pat Martino, a jazz guitarist revered for the fluid precision and blistering speed of his playing — both before and after he was forced to relearn the instrument following a mid-career brain aneurysm — died on Monday. He was 77 years old. His death was announced on Facebook by his longtime manager, Joseph Donofrio.

Martino, born Patrick Azzara, died after a long illness in the South Philadelphia row home formerly owned by his parents, where he moved in 1980 after undergoing neurosurgery that saved his life — at the near-total cost of his memory. The guitarist had been suffering from a chronic respiratory disorder since 2018, breathing with oxygen support and unable to play since a tour of Italy that November. He is survived by his wife, Ayako.