John Pizzarelli: Rhythm is his (Family) Business

John Pizzarelli’s memoir, World on a String makes it seem that his destiny was written in “gallons of red sauce simmering in immense vats on the stove … at the home of my uncle Pete and aunt Honey in Clifton, New Jersey.” That is where young John, his father Bucky, and another uncle, Bobby, would withdraw from the large weekly family gathering to continue John’s banjo, and later guitar, lessons. Then they all returned to join “the rollicking family sing-alongs that always followed” the meals.

The Pizzarelli home was also filled with “love, music, and stories.” The kids were free to listen to their own music, be it The Beatles, Peter Frampton, or whatever. When John tried to copy on his guitar what he was hearing, “my dad casually listened from a distance, showing me a few things but always taking a hands-off approach, allowing me to play the music I liked and never forcing his tastes or his style on me.”

Thanks to his gregarious father, the young musician received a host of other influences, and opportunities. “In my teens and early twenties, I was lucky enough to hang out with people like Zoot Sims, Joe Pass, and Slam Stewart and play with Ray Brown, Marshall Royal, Buddy Tate, Bob Haggard, Milt Hinton, Ralph Sutton, and Paul Smith. Luckily, I didn’t know anything then that I know now or else I would have been more scared than I was.

“Joe Venuti was great because he told a lot of stories. Les Paul came over at the same time and we got to watch them all play. That was REALLY crazy. At that time, I was 16 or 17 years old. We had Ray Brown over for Sunday brunch when we moved across the street from him. It was really interesting to hear him talking about Oscar Peterson. I got to play with Stéphane Grappelli on one of the Telarc records. They said, ‘We want you to be a guest.’ I sat in on two songs and then drove Grappelli back to his hotel.”

Sometimes Benny Goodman would be napping on the living room couch.

Moving from playing and singing in the frequent family and social gatherings to public venues happened early and often. His guitar playing shows his father’s strong influence, but not his stage persona. While the senior Pizzarelli seldom spoke from the stage, his son’s banter is always worth your attention. He explained the difference, “I come out of watching Johnny Carson and listening to Bill Cosby and George Carlin records. I liked David Frye, Rich Little, and Fred Travalena. So, for me it was all timing and entertainment.

“How a joke lands is as serious a business as playing ‘I Got Rhythm.’ I point to three New Jersey concerts: Springsteen in ’84 and Billy Joel in ’83 and ’84 or ’85; all three had something that you could apply to any kind of entertaining anywhere. I’ve kept those as templates for what I was going to do behind a microphone.

“Being my father’s son; singing on a record in 1983; making three records in the eighties; making my first sort of national record in 1990; then going to RCA the next year, I had all that music to lean back on. I had played with Zoot Sims, Slam Stewart, a lot with my father, I had 10 years of experience and that really was the key to grounding me. And, I was always lucky to be able to make the records I wanted to make.”

His stellar singing and guitar work alone produced a demand that has him on the road for as much as he wants. Luckily, however, at one important New York City gig, the management wanted more. They urged him to include some popular female guest vocalist with his trio. He was reluctant to add a singer as he felt it was unnecessary; by then his resume included touring with Frank Sinatra and other giants of the business. Ultimately, however, he agreed to do so and it proved to be lasting, but not for the trio.

His wife, Broadway’s Jessica Molaskey, was available. She had been hesitant about performing with her husband for the first years of their marriage, but agreed to this temporary post as it involved no traveling and only a few songs each night. Pizzarelli says in his memoir “a weird dynamic began to take place… from the moment she and I (stiffly) shook hands and said ‘Hello’ to one another, people started laughing.” They riffed a few more lines and the laughter continued. “And we had no idea why.”

That gig had lasting results: they gained an annual extended booking at New York’s prestigious Café Carlyle, and it spawned the idea of their radio show.

“Radio Deluxe” premiered on December 3, 2005, as a weekly show, and it still continues. Pizzarelli said, “I don’t think Jessica thought she was even going to participate in it, until we got into the studio and I said, ‘From high atop Lexington Avenue…’. I always liked the idea that radio shows were from high atop somewhere. Then the idea of everything was Deluxe, I remember that was one of the things, everything should be deluxe. So, I said, ‘call it the deluxe living room.’”

The way the show works is, “At the beginning of the week, we’ll each pick, say 12 songs. Usually about 24 songs. make up a two-hour show. And we don’t tell each other what we’re doing. We just say, ‘Well, what do you have?’ We make sure not to talk about anything in advance.” Guests have been an important feature from the start. Usually, they are well-known performers, such as Bill Charlap, Ann Hampton Calloway, or Kurt Elling, but not always.

Several authors have appeared to promote their works and even “Charles Osgood from CBS came on the show and played the piano. I really wanted Bob Elliott of Bob and Ray, the great radio team on the show.” That was a special treat as he loved Bob and Ray, and he got to improvise a skit in that classic style with the legendary star.

Catherine Russell proved another significant guest. She was booked to be on a show built on the theme of the music of Frank Sinatra and Lady Day. Pizzarelli explained, “I had a gig at California State University, Northridge and we did the show there—on the road live radio. It was one of her first gigs out on the road, and it was hilarious because I said, ‘Catherine, now you have to speak.’ She was like, ‘I just want to sing, do my job and get out. I don’t know what to say.’”

The two proved to have a special chemistry that their common booking agency soon promoted as “Billie and Blue Eyes.” She explained, “The set-up is John and his band do the first half of the show with Sinatra tunes, several of which he has recorded. Then he introduces me. I sing with them. Some we sing together, he’ll sing one, then I’ll sing one, and so on….and we do a couple of tunes as a duo with just voice and guitar. John is a lot of fun and a great musician! He just comes up with funny things off the top of his head, like I used to see Robin Williams do when I worked in a comedy club many years ago. He is a great showman, and we get along very well; and I do different repertoire than I do in my own shows.”

They only join forces a few times a year, and they had so much material to choose from that the shows seldom remained the same. After a few years they added one called “Nat Cole and the First Ladies of Song.” It was built around Cole’s historic early TV show and the ladies who appeared with him.

Their newest one is “Ella, Joe and Oscar.” Pizzarelli said, “she’s picked a lot of Ella. I just accompany her on guitar, like Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass. And then my trio we’re going to homage the Oscar Peterson trio arrangements. I’ve written some things in the style of that group. So thought we’d do some of those. And, of course, there’s “The Hymn to Freedom,” which is an Oscar Peterson piece, and his “Brotherhood of Man” arrangement. We’re particularly fond of that. Then she comes back and sings with us.

“I love working with her, she’s like Jessica, a joy, fantastic, easy going, and musical. And it’s very special what she’s got.” It is indeed, I’ve seen their show several times, and it’s always a bit different and a joy; as are his normal shows. Even on the rare occasions when he tells the same stories his delivery alone makes them well worth hearing again. The Pizzarelli family business has long endured, continues to flourish and is well worth patronizing.

Visit John Pizzarelli online at www.johnpizzarelli.com.