John Pizzarelli: Knowing You

With a delicate grace, John Pizzarelli devotes his attention to the pop/Broadway talents of Jimmy McHugh, Sammy Cahn, Frank Loessor, and Johnny Mandel, among many others. Outstanding on this recording are Pizzarelli's original comps, the title cut (composed with wife Jessica Molaskey), and the instrumental ballad "The First Hint of Autumn." Molaskey joins Pizzarelli in a duet on the beautifully contemporary "Quality Time," which they deliver with a clever and intimate panache. But these are just a couple of the diamonds in this box of jewels. Pizzarelli inaugurates the disc with swinging rendition of Maltby and Shine's "Coffee, Black," replete with Pizzarelli's trademark guitar/voice duet on the solo that follows a quite nifty voice-drums introduction. The guitarist steals the Cahn/Van Heusen classic "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" away from Dean Martin.

Pizzarelli chose well when he asked organist Larry Goldings and tenor saxophonist Harry Allen to join him on this recording. Their presence really turns on the class. Allen, a tenor master of the American Songbook like Pizzarelli, infuses his pieces with a Stan Getz character, breathy and broad. Goldings, less conservative than Allen, nevertheless meets the challenge of Tony Asher's "God Only Knows" and the title song. This is a beautiful recording in every way. Pizzarelli deserves much more attention than he gets.

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