John Pizzarelli © Andrea Canter

We're getting rather fond of the name Pizzarelli in Minneapolis. Veteran swing guitar master Bucky Pizzarelli has now appeared here twice in the last six months, in duo with pianist Benny Green. They recorded LIve at the Dakota in late September. In between dad's visits, son John Pizzarelli came in for one night in August. Now John returns for two nights (January 25-26) with his quartet, including brother Martin on bass, Larry Fuller on piano, and Tony Tedesco on drums. They form the core of the ensemble that appears on John’s acclaimed 2008 recording on Telarc, With a Song in My Heart. And if anyone was born with a song in his heart, it was John Pizzarelli. 

John Pizzarelli © Andrea Canter

The John Pizzarelli Quartet is a bit of a family affair with brother Martin on bass. Martin has appeared on many of his brother’s recordings as well as releasing his own Triple Play. Larry Fuller was Ray Brown’s last pianist and has also played with Stanley Turrentine, Ernestine Anderson and Harry “Sweets” Edison. Drummer Tony Tedesco has a long history with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey, appearing on their recordings as well as with John in the Broadway production of Dream. 

With A Song in My Heart (Telarc)

John Pizzarelli’s latest release salutes the great songwriter Richard Rodgers, whose songs are some of the best known of the Great American Songbook. In partnership with Lorenzo Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II, Rodgers penned hundreds of songs and 40 Broadway musicals (South Pacific, Pal Joey, Spring Is Here, Babes in Arms), winning Oscar, Emmy, Tony and Pulitzer awards. Pizzarelli wasn’t satisfied with the most familiar of Rodgers’ tunes like “Mountain Greenery” and “The Lady Is a Tramp,” exploring the full canon to retrieve such gems as the satirical “I Like to Recognize the Tune” and  the provocative “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.” Distinctive elements that further push this recording above the sea of pleasant presentations of standards are the horn arrangements by Don Sebesky and the intimacy of Pizzarelli’s vocals. Said John, “I wanted it to be along the lines of the kinds of records Marty Paitch and Mel Tormé used to make... the horns sort of lead the way over the bass and drums. That way, the piano and the guitar are more like soloists.” 

And the horns indeed lead the way, not only from the opening title track but from arrangements that uniquely focus on the brass section rather than simply creating a big band-like backdrop for the vocalist. With his core quartet, Pizzarelli pulls in the talents of trombonist John Mosca, saxophone and clarinet specialists Andy Fusco and Kenny Berger, and trumpeter/flugelhornist Tony Kadleck. He also called on Don Sebesky to write special brass arrangements for six of twelve tracks, and invited special guests Cesar Camargo (piano) and dad Bucky Pizzarelli (guitar) for one track each. 

If piano and guitar are soloists, then Pizzarelli the guitarist shares at least equal spotlight with Pizzarelli the vocalist. Often compared to Chet Baker, who inspired several tracks on this recording, Pizzarelli’s voice lacks the emotional depth of the late singer/trumpeter, yet neverthless pulls the listener in through intimate conversation. From start to finish, Pizzarelli displays a gentle reverence for his material, both melody and lyric—we never fail “to recognize the tune.” And the arrangements never interfere, never interrupt or overshadow the conversation. 

The title track salutes the earlier arrangement by Don Sebesky for Chet Baker, Pizzarelli noting that the horn arrangement is “a harmonization of Chet’s first chorus on the version from his record.”  John takes the song at a brisk pace with bouncing guitar lines, his scat going out in perfect tandem with the horns. Pizzarelli’s judicious use of scat also augments the Rodgers and Hart ditty, “I Like to Recognize the Tune,” here in extended duet with his own guitar to create a unique harmony; on “The Lady Is a Tramp” (from 1937’s Babes in Arms), Pizzarelli’s voice plays fifth horn in a conversation that goes back and forth between scat, guitar and each horn in turn. 

The other horn arrangements bless renditions of Rodgers and Hart’s “This Can’t Be Love,” a samba-kissed “Johnny One Note” (featuring great sax lines from Andy Fusco), an upbeat “Mountain Greenery” and a reworking from the male perspective of “She [He] Was Too Good to Me,” the latter another salute to the original (1974) recording by Chet Baker. 

Three Rodgers and Hammerstein tunes offer gentle swing without the added vigor of the horn section: “Happy Talk” (South Pacific) takes on bossa nova rhythm with Cesar Camargo Mariano taking over the piano as he did on John’s Bossa Nova recording. Said Pizzarelli, “I’ve always thought of this as a bossa nova song, because it mentions the moon and the sky and the lilies on the lake—all of that typical bossa nova imagery. It almost sounds as though Jobim could have written it.” Also from South Pacific with a very different flavor, “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” finds Pizzarelli revamping the rhythm from the original ¾ to 4/4, Larry Fuller’s articulate piano out front with little if any contribution from bass and drums. “I sort of treated it as a James Taylor song,” says John, but it comes across more akin to Paul Simon. Also effectively minimalist in instrumentation is “I Have Dreamed,” sporting another hint of laid-back samba.  

The quartet swings softly on Rodgers and Hart’s “Nobody’s Heart,” while perhaps the highlight of the set is the perfect cross-generational pairing of John and Bucky Pizzarelli on “Easy to Remember,” a favorite tune of Benny Goodman that John remembers from his early gigs opening with his father for the great bandleader. “My father has just recently started playing it again in his show, so that’s why it’s on this record.” And maybe the tune is included here because the song seems to inspire Bucky’s most exquisite playing and the sympathetic collaboration of father and son. 

On Tour

As always, John Pizzarelli has a song in his heart, an inborn sense of swing and sincere interpretation of lyric, effective in tribute to both the songwriters and song stylists who have most influenced his life in music. On January 25-26,  he brings the songs (and his quartet) to the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis. After a swing through New England. John will appear in the intimate concert space of the Allen Room of Jazz at Lincoln Center on February 21st.

The Dakota Jazz Club is located at 1010 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis; two shows at 7 and 9:30 pm, reservations strongly recommended at 612-332-1010 or www.dakotacooks.com.  Complete tour information for John Pizzarelli at www.johnpizzarelli.com

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