John+pizzarelli

Frank Sinatra, though not a jazz singer, was long respected by jazz musicians for his natural ability to get the best out of a song while developing a trademark approach to singing that had great appeal. While many recorded tributes to Sinatra since his death have been abysmal at best, vocalist and guitarist John Pizzarelli knows a little something about swinging and finding the essence of each song. Backed by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, with whom Pizzarelli toured prior to the making of this CD, along with arrangements by John Clayton, Don Sebesky, Dick Lieb, and Quincy Jones, he sought to focus primarily on songs written with Sinatra in mind, though taking new approaches to each of them.

If you like your contemporary jazz crooners smooth and sweet, then likely John Pizzarelli is your main man above today's many post-Sinatra posers. This recording is as solid an effort as he has offered musically, or in terms of his stance and intelligent selection of material. While his guitar playing is subsumed, it is nonetheless precious, and when occasionally paired alongside his father, Bucky Pizzarelli, priceless. The surrounding cast is outstanding, with bassists Milt Hinton, Ron Carter, or Michael Moore; drummers Butch Miles or Connie Kay; and especially the great pianist Dave McKenna – along with cameos from trumpeter Clark Terry and violinist Johnny Frigo.

John Pizzarelli teams with the George Shearing Quintet to reveal their unique musical chemistry on The Rare Delight of You, a 15-track gem filled with the ambience of such great composers as Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Harry Warren, and the master himself, George Shearing. Pizzarelli, a master of the Great American Songbook, showcases his musical heirlooms – buoyant, loving vocals and quality guitar skills – alongside Shearing's authentic and full-spirited piano savvy with brilliant insight and freedom of expression without exceeding the boundaries of the original compositions. The results are tender, expressive, jazz renderings that resound with taste and class.

With each new release, guitarist, singer, and composer John Pizzarelli just keeps getting more assured. Augmenting his polished trio with occasional horns, accordion, and cello (as well as the guitar of father Bucky and the percussive effects of Tony Tedesco, who plays brushes on top of a phone book), Pizzarelli injects welcome tonal variety and surprise to a project that continually radiates intelligent musicality. An exceptional guitarist and modest vocalist with a comforting and utterly winning delivery, Pizzarelli charts standards ("Everything I Have Is Yours," "You'll Never Know," "What Is There to Say?") and charming originals ("All I Saw Was You," "Lucky Charm," "Da Vinci's Eyes," "Our Little Secret") with a confidence and ease that was hinted at on earlier recordings but has now blossomed into fruition . Jazz aficionados have known of Pizzarelli's talents for years; it's time a wider public - say, the one that embraces Harry Connick Jr.

Nat "King" Cole's piano trio has been an inspiration for many of today's young lions: from Diana Krall to this talented vocalist-guitarist, John Pizzarelli. Taking his cue from the fleet-fingered dexterity of Cole's guitar ace Oscar Moore, Pizzarelli combines economical licks with wispy, Chet Baker-like vocalism's on this candlelight tribute consisting of Cole-associated songs, accompanied by bassist brother Martin Pizzarelli and pianist Ray Kennedy. The tunes are sung and swung with reverence and rhythm: the easygoing "Walkin' My Baby Back Home," the furious, foot-stomping standard "Indiana," the plaintive ballad "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons," and the devilish and demure, "Don't Let It Go to Your Head." With the toe-tapping original composition "That's Nat," cowritten by Pizzarelli and Kennedy, Nat King Cole's intimate ballads and pre-bebop instrumentals are brought to a new generation with the leader's own tender and terrific talents.

On this album, jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli pays simultaneous tribute to the pop music of his adolescence (Steely Dan, Billy Joel, the Allman Brothers, Elvis Costello) and the jazz tradition in which he, as a member of the celebrated Pizzarelli dynasty, was steeped from his earliest years. The album title refers to the fact that the program takes classic pop songs and puts them in jazz settings: thus you'll hear a cool bossa nova arrangement of Joni Mitchell's "Free Man in Paris," a completely natural lounge-lizard setting of Tom Waits' "Drunk on the Moon," and a hard-swinging, boppish version of James Taylor's "Traffic Jam" that sounds like it was written for the Manhattan Transfer and incorporates the Joe Henderson composition "The Kicker."

John Pizzarelli lays it all out in the title of his 2015 album: this tribute to Paul McCartney is designed for play in the smoky late-night hours, when everything turns sweet and mellow. Furthermore, this is a tribute to McCartney, not the Beatles. There isn't a Fab song to be found here, as Pizzarelli focuses entirely on Paul's solo work (for these intents and purposes, this includes Wings records), concentrating on the '70s but also sliding McCartney's Great American Songbook wannabe "My Valentine" into the mix. Pizzarelli digs up a few other obscurities – the early Wings song "Some People Never Know," the Speed of Sound deep cut "Warm and Beautiful" – and he also plays around with expectations, making "Let 'Em In" swing like mad and relaxing "Hi Hi Hi" so it doesn't rock, it grooves. He also invites Michael McDonald to sing on "Coming Up," which swaggers like Sinatra in Vegas, but for as delightful as that is, the key to the record's success is Pizzarelli himself, who delivers upon the laid-back promise of the title but is savvier than he needed to be, which is why Midnight McCartney satisfies.