Benny Green and Bucky PizzarelliŠAndrea Canter

To paraphrase Benny, Lowell called and asked him if he was interested in a duo gig with the king of swinging jazz guitar, Bucky Pizzarelli. “How much do I have to pay?” asked Benny. Presumedly, Benny got a free ticket. Surely, the rest of us paid far less than the face value of the music. Having never met prior to their sound check Monday afternoon, Benny and Bucky proceeded to plant a most delightful, alternately swinging and exquisite garden of instrumental music. The joy of the harvest was ours.   

Benny GreenŠAndrea Canter

Yet join these two souls together on stage and the result was pure ecstasy with a swing beat in perfect alignment. With little time to join their songbooks, the pair came up with two distinct sets repeated across the two evenings, and in true jazz fashion, they never played the same way once yet always danced together. Their respect for one another was a given from the opening note, and only grew over the two nights. Noted Benny, “Bucky is every self-respecting jazz guitarist’s father.” Bucky, in return, spent much of the evenings beaming at his young cohort, nodding his head, grinning ear to ear, gesturing approval like a proud dad who just discovered a long-lost offspring. If they don’t share genetic material, they surely share the imprint of the same tradition. 

Bucky PizzarelliŠAndrea Canter

Two traits shared by both musicians were displayed in neon throughout the evening—their ferocious swing chops and their impeccable articulation at any speed. Every note had its own identity, its own space—times two. 

One of the attractions of live jazz is witnessing the moments of musical creation. Those in the Dakota audience August fourth and fifth witnessed not only the spontaneous combustion of sound and rhythm, but the happy collision of soulmates finding each other for the first time. It was a dance of first love.

First posted on Andrea Canter’s blog at www.jazzink.blogspot.com