Monday, September 18, 2017
Tuesday, August 9, 2016
#JohnPizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey
John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey just celebrated their 18th Wedding Anniversary!! These two lovebirds grace... https://t.co/7AbeAjJ5Cs— Jazz Alley (@Jazz_Alley) August 8, 2016
Monday, March 14, 2016
Eddie and Bill - "Quiet Now"
Published on Mar 26, 2015
In a tribute to pianist Bill Evans, clarinetist Eddie Daniels performing "Quiet Now" [Denny Zeitlin] with Dave Samuels, vibes, John Pizzarelli, guitar, Eddie Gomez, bass and Marty Morell, drums. Orchestra arranged and conducted by Don Sebesky.
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Friday, January 8, 2016
Wednesday, March 18, 2015
John Pizzarelli Big Band
John Pizzarelli Big Band - The Frank Sinatra Centennial
For more information on John Pizzarelli, click here.
Sponsored by Andrea B. and Peter D. Klein
read more: http://tillescenter.org/event/john-pizzarelli-big-band-the-frank-sinatra-centennial/
Monday, August 25, 2014
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Singer / Guitarist JOHN PIZZARELLI Delivers Twice the Musical Punch on New Album
Double Exposure set for release on May 15, 2012
For nearly 30 years, guitarist John Pizzarelli has explored various corners of the jazz landscape and merged a variety of styles into a single, distinctive signature sound. On any given recording – indeed, in any given song – one is likely to encounter an entertaining convergence of jazz, swing, the American songbook, pop, bossa nova and more.
Double Exposure, Pizzarelli’s latest recording on Telarc – a division of Concord Music Group – focuses on two distinct styles to make a single fine recording. Set for release on May 15, 2012, Double Exposure is a collection of tunes by some of the great pop songwriters of his own generation that are framed squarely within traditional jazz arrangements.
“I didn’t want to just cover these songs, but rather find a way to present them that was unusual and interesting’” says Pizzarelli. “I think growing up in a household that had two specific record collections became the inspiration – my father’s jazz records, my sisters’ record collection and records brought around by their friends.”
The result is a fascinating and engaging musical hybrid. Double Exposure draws from a diverse pool of some of the best pop songwriters of the past five decades: Lennon and McCartney, Neil Young, James Taylor, Leiber and Stoller, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell and others. Woven into these memorable compositions are threads of jazz borrowed from figures like Wes Montgomery, Billy Strayhorn, Thad Jones and John Coltrane.
Pizzarelli is backed by his touring and studio band, featuring keyboardist Larry Fuller, bassist (and brother) Martin Pizzarelli and drummer Tony Tedesco. In addition, organist Larry Goldings assists on a number of tracks. A four-piece horn section arranged by Don Sebesky includes Tony Kadleck (trumpet, flugelhorn), John Mosca (trombone, euphonium), Kenny Berger (baritone sax, bass clarinet) and Andy Fusco (alto and tenor saxophone, clarinet), providing accents and embellishments along the way.
The 13-song set opens with the upbeat and uptempo “I Feel Fine/Sidewinder,” a track which Pizzarelli describes as “Lennon and McCartney meet Lee Morgan.” Before the recording sessions got under way in the fall of 2011, he and his band initially road tested the song at a Birdland gig in New York City. “There were kids there who were saying, ‘Hey, we loved the way you played ‘Sidewinder’ inside a Beatles tune!’”
This jazz-flavored rendition of the Beatles classic is the latest chapter in the prolific Pizzarelli-McCartney association that has developed over the past few months. Pizzarelli appears on several tracks on McCartney’s new album, Kisses on the Bottom, a collection of standards (plus two McCartney originals) released in early February. Two days after the release, Pizzarelli performed with Sir Paul at an iTunes concert at Capitol Records Studios in Hollywood, California. The two also performed together at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on February 12, 2012.
Pizzarelli’s intriguing renditions of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” and Billy Joel’s “Rosalinda’s Eyes” are a nod to the guitarist’s high school and college years – a period during which he played in numerous pop and rock cover bands – while “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” is his perky take on the Allman Brothers’ instrumental, augmented by themes from Wes Montgomery’s “Four On Six.” The combination was “something that just came out of the blue,” says Pizzarelli. “I was sitting up in my cabin, thinking about an instrumental. I thought about all the instrumental tracks the Allman Brothers have recorded over the years, and ‘Elizabeth Reed’ immediately came to mind.”
In “Walk Between the Raindrops,” the Donald Fagen song from his 1982 solo recording, The Nightfly, includes arranger Don Sebeskey’s homage to trumpeter Thad Jones.
The slinky, sly-sounding “Take a Lot of Pictures” is the album’s sole original track, as penned by Pizzarelli and his wife, singer/actor Jessica Molaskey. The title comes from an old expression by Frank Sinatra, who was known to grow weary of backstage fans with overactive cameras. “Take a lot of pictures” was Sinatra’s way of implying that he wouldn’t be returning to the venue anytime soon. Likewise, the Pizzarelli/Molaskey song is a bitterly comic sendoff to a love gone sour.
The album closes with a whimsical reading of Seals and Crofts’ 1973 hit, “Diamond Girl,” which quotes directly from Miles Davis’ iconic “So What” and features an expressive trumpet solo by Tony Kadleck.
“There was a lot more to this record than just writing out chords to these songs and saying, ‘Let’s play this,’” Pizzarelli says of Double Exposure. “I really worked hard on the arrangements. I worked on what everybody would play. And I sat down with the guitar and worked everything out before I even sat down with the group.”
“It’s a different kind of record, but it’s also something that I’ve been wanting to do for several years, so I’m glad I finally got to do it. It was a matter of finding the jazz to go inside the pop song, and doing it in a way that would be entertaining and engaging.”
“In each one of these songs, there are two things happening at once – a pop dimension and a jazz dimension – but at the same time they blend together very well. This is what my career has been about, ever since I first became aware of music and ever since I first picked up the guitar. This record provides the listener with an exposure to both of these very significant dimensions.”
Friday, October 16, 2009
Stars Celebrate 30 Years Of Piano Jazz
Cedar Walton follows with a favorite recorded by McPartland on more than one occasion, Billy Strayhorn's "Daydream." Pianist and singer Dena DeRose croons "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" before Kenny Werner takes a page from Broadway with an extensive improvisation of "Somewhere" from West Side Story. Next, 18-year-old saxophonist Grace Kelly and McPartland take the stage for a dazzling duet of "Caravan." Kelly's surprisingly soulful alto offers further proof of why this talented young musician is praised by the alto masters Phil Woods and Lee Konitz. McPartland then accompanies vocalist Karrin Allyson in the melancholy "There Will Be Other Times," a McPartland original with lyrics by Margaret Jones.
The Pizzarelli brothers — John (guitar, vocals) and Martin (bass) — are joined by pianist "Gentleman" John Bunch for "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" before heading straight in to a jumping, scatting rendition of "Lady Be Good" to close out the set. Tune in next week for the third and final installment of this Piano Jazz celebration, featuring Arturo O'Farrill, Grady Tate, Joanne Brackeen, Randy Weston and more. You won't want to miss the final set of this special performance.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113829750&ft=1&f=1039
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Anat Cohen and John Pizzarelli -- I Wanna Be Around
The sold out debut of Waverly Seven at the Jazz Standard NYC: Anat Cohen, Avishai Cohen, Joel Frahm, Manuel Valera, Barak Mori, Daniel Freedman, Jason Lindner. More info at waverlyseven.com
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Awesome performance of LEGENDS OF JAZZ Theme Song
Jane Monheit, John Pizzarelli & Ramsey Lewis perform The LEGENDS OF JAZZ Theme Song from The American Songbook Episode
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Pizzarelli and Molaskey bring their breezy jazz to Orange County
By Al Rudis, Staff Writer
The headlines are heavy, and the outlook for 2009 is decidedly ponderous, but there's a chance to lighten up and waft on the breeze next weekend at the intimate Samueli Theater of the Orange County Performing Arts Center.
Guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli and his wife, singer Jessica Molaskey, will turn the theater into a jazz club for a four-day residency, and their brand of music is mostly airy, pleasant and smile-inducing.
"Laughing, that's a happy habit," sings Molaskey in the first song of her recent album, "A Kiss to Build A Dream On." From this album and Pizzarelli's recent disk, "With a Song in My Heart," it seems as though this couple, in the second marriage for both, is reflecting marital and musical happiness in performance.
"Yeah, we're very happy people, aren't we, darling?" Pizzarelli said during a phone interview last week from a cabin in Kent, N.Y. In the background, Molaskey's voice responded, "We're so lucky!"
"Actually, we are lucky," Pizzarelli said, "Because we do get to do what we want to do and make the kind of records we want to make and sing the songs we want to sing. It promotes happiness."
Pizzarelli performed with the Long Beach Symphony Pops in the fall of 2007, but this time it will be just himself on guitar and Molaskey on piano, bass and drums. Both will do vocals as well.
"We're on stage together for 90 percent of the evening," he said. "We do medleys at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. And then around those points in the show, she'll do a number, I'll do a number and we talk a little."
Pizzarelli said the talk is virtually the same as what they do on their weekly nationally syndicated radio program, "Radio Deluxe," which used to be on KJAZ in Long Beach. Now you have to go to 1450 AM in San Diego or 1510 in the Inland Empire to hear it.
They talk about themselves and music and introduce recordings in the weekly two-hour radio show. "We sort of complement each other and we joke with each other, but we don't get mean spirited, because we like each other," said Pizzarelli. "I've never been with anybody like her. We've always liked each other from the first day we met."
The meeting was in a Broadway revue called "Dream," based on the songs of Johnny Mercer. The show ran only three months, but the couple has been together 11 years. The family includes their daughter and his son.
The son of another famous jazz guitarist, Bucky Pizzarelli, he's patterned his career on such instrumentalist-singers as Nat King Cole (in his early career), Bobby Troup and Chet Baker.
"Their groups played jazz, and it wasn't a full-throated approach to singing," Pizzarelli said. "And there was good humor. "Those are the things I liked about them and tried to bring to my career: great jazz and interesting songs, standards but also interesting patter songs or fun songs or sad songs, but definitely more rhythmic and lighter in approach."
Even within this format, Pizzarelli made changes.
"From performing as a singer and guitarist for 25 years, I understand my voice better, and my whole delivery and the process of singing in clubs and on record," he said. "You figure out along the way what works better and how you can make the most out of what you have as an instrument."
A good example of his approach is the song "I Have Dreamed" on his new album.
"I heard Sinatra's version on the radio the other day," he said. "And there's this beautiful orchestra thing at the end. He sings one chorus, and he finishes with a `loved by you' with a big crash, bang, boom. Whereas, I thought, for me, it would work better as a bossa nova in a different kind of harmonic setting."
On his album, the song is light and wistful, in contrast to Sinata's dark agony.
It seems as though he can give the "Pizzarelli treatment" to virtually every standard. Were there any songs that he wouldn't attempt?
"There's not any specific songs I would say, oh, I would never sing that song," he said, but then paused to hear a suggestion from his wife.
"Yeah," he said, "`Alfie's' the one I wouldn't sing," and he laughed. "`Alfie' and `Lush Life' (a classic agony song), at the moment."
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_11450884
Friday, January 9, 2009
John Pizzarelli On Piano Jazz
January 9, 2009 - Guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli is one of the hottest jazz acts on the scene today. With his hip, swinging and sophisticated style, he makes music that sounds both classic and thoroughly modern.
He comes by his guitar playing honestly — he's the son of jazz guitarist John "Bucky" Pizzarelli (1999 Piano Jazz Alum) who often sat in with Marian McPartland during her ten-year reign at the 52nd St. jazz spot, the Hickory House. The elder Pizzarelli, of course, helped his son get his start as John recalled during his first Piano Jazz appearance in 2001. (audio)
Since his debut album in 1990, Pizzarelli has devoted a number of his recordings to his favorite artists. Two of those — Dear Mr. Cole and P.S Mr. Cole — have been in the form of musical letters to the man Pizzarelli credits in this show with having made him pursue jazz, Nat King Cole. With his trio, Pizzarelli performs a pair of tunes Cole made famous — "Straighten Up and Fly Right" and a lesser known ballad by Irene Higgenbotham called "This Will Make You Laugh," a tune Pizzarelli describes as the Nat King Cole hit that never was.
Fans of Major League Baseball will be familiar with Pizzarelli's version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" that was featured during ESPN's coverage of the 2008 season. He continues the sports theme on this program with Johnny Mercer's song about a legendary Rose Bowl comeback engineered by a swinging musician named "Jamboree Jones."
John's trio includes his brother Martin Pizzarelli on bass and drummer Tony Tedesco, who has been backing the Pizzarelli brothers for more than ten years.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99126634&ft=1&f=10002
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