Pizzarelli gets lost in tunes by guitar peer
In the early days of the pandemic, COVID-19 took John Pizzarelli’s father, legendary seven-string jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. One week later, his mother, Ruth Pizzarelli, followed her husband of 66 years.
John Pizzarelli’s new album, “Better Days Ahead,” isn’t exactly a response to those losses. Rather, it’s a creative leap into territory both entirely unexpected and utterly in keeping with his father’s legacy. Focusing on the exquisite compositions of Pat Metheny, the 20-time Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist known for his pastoral melodies and fascination with new technologies, the solo guitar project is unlike anything Pizzarelli has ever created.
An extraordinary response to extraordinary circumstances, the album took shape while Pizzarelli sheltered in place with his wife, vocalist Jessica Molaskey, in their cabin about 60 miles north of New York City.
“I had so much that had gone on, losing both my parents within seven days, the pandemic,” said Pizzarelli, 61, who is scheduled to perform at Yoshi’s in Oakland on Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 17-18. “I’d wake up at 7 a.m., sit on the porch with my nylon-string guitar and work out Pat Metheny tunes.”
Metheny had sent him a note upon hearing about his father’s death, and as they corresponded back and forth, he praised the video Pizzarelli had posted of his solo version of “Better Days Ahead,” a piece from Metheny’s 1989 album “Letter From Home.” With friends encouraging Pizzarelli to continue delving into Metheny’s tunes, the guitarist himself sent him a binder of
music, saying, “This is basically the book of things I give to guys when they join the band,” Pizzarelli said.
Pizzarelli ranged far and wide through the collection. With arrangements gleaned from more than four decades of Metheny recordings, the album’s scope is more than impressive. There’s the calmly affectionate character study “James” from the Pat Metheny Group’s 1982 album “Offramp,” the mysterious ballad “September 15” from the 1981 collaboration with Lyle Mays “As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls,” and the sublime lullaby “From This Place,” the title track from Metheny’s latest release.
“I had all this time on my hands and I thought, ‘What would it be like to approach these things as a solo guitarist?’ ” Pizzarelli said. “I can play the guitar pretty well — I learned from Bucky Pizzarelli — and we listened to Pat and loved his approach and the melodies. For me to make a record of standards was not where I wanted to go, but Pat’s tunes were no different from learning ‘Some Other Time’ or ‘Swinging on a Star.’ They’re just great songs.”
As one of jazz’s most celebrated champions of the American Songbook,
Pizzarelli is usually associated with finely crafted pop songs. A relaxed, rhythmically assured vocalist, he has recorded 20 albums under his own name, and is best known for his thematic projects celebrating the polished repertoires of Nat “King” Cole, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mercer.
He also played a key role on Paul McCartney’s 2012 standards album “Kisses on the Bottom” and several James Taylor releases, including coproducing his charttopping, Grammy Awardwinning 2020 album, “American Standard.”
Released in April on Ghostlight Deluxe, “Better Days Ahead” happened to arrive a few months after Metheny’s “Road to the Sun,” an album showcasing his increasingly ambitious compositions for nylon-string guitar. Featuring two major works, the album includes the gorgeous six-movement title suite played by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and the fourmovement “Four Paths of Light,” played by classical master Jason Vieaux.
Meanwhile, Metheny keeps forging ahead, touring
and recording with some of the most exciting young improvisers on the scene. He’s expected to bring his new band SideEye to the Monterey Jazz Festival on Sept. 24 and the SFJazz Center on Sept 25-26. The outfit features 26-year-old keyboardist James Francies and 31year-old New Orleans drummer Joe Dyson.
While “Better Days Ahead” represents a striking departure for Pizzarelli, San Francisco guitarist and jazz guitar historian Nick Rossi sees the project as a case of generational continuity more than a stylistic break. Bucky Pizzarelli “was the last of that line, the last guitarist left who came up playing in a big band rhythm section in the 1940s,” Rossi said.
“John so respects American Songbook songcraft he’s made it his business to keep that alive and explore the further resources and other sources of inspiration,” Rossi continued. “I think what he managed to do is reframe
Pat Metheny not as a guitarist but as a composer.”
Metheny’s music will figure prominently in Pizzarelli’s shows at Yoshi’s, but after a solo guitar set, Pizzarelli plans to also perform with a trio playing pieces associated with his father, songs from 2019’s “For Centennial Reasons: 100 Year Salute to Nat King Cole,” and contemporary jazz tunes by the likes of Benny Green, Christian McBride and Larry Goldings.
“I listen to a lot of different music, but I made my living in one direction,” Pizzarelli said. “All of a sudden I had the time to really step out of my comfort zone. At 40, I wouldn’t have told you I would make an album of Pat Metheny tunes in a million years. There were so many fun discoveries. I could hear my father saying ‘Take your time with that section, you don’t have to rush.’ ”