John Pizzarelli at Blues Alley

John Pizzarelli
Blues Alley
Washington, DC
December 8, 2024

When you're part of a jazz dynasty—son of guitar-great Bucky Pizzarelli, husband of chanteuse Jessica Molaskey—it's only natural that you'd ring in the holiday season for us peasants with a Christmas carol or two. John Pizzarelli warmed up the crowd at DC's venerable Blues Alley with a swinging mug of wassail alongside classics from the Great American songbook and some original tunes for good measure. In the hallowed tradition of Joe Pass, Barney Kessel and his Dad, Pizzarelli made his instrument soar.

Backed by effortlessly cool Isaiah J. Thompson on the Blues Alley baby grand and stand-up bass stalwart Mike Karn, Pizzarelli circumnavigated his Ryan Thorell-built archtop electric effortlessly (and with seven strings no less—the added first in Drop A tuning). His Fender Deluxe Reverb returned a crystal clear sound from the opening stanzas of "Let It Snow" thru a swinging "Greensleeves" and back again. Thompson's solo flights were especially impressive on the opening number.

Next up was a plaintive "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve,' the Frank Loesser ballad, rendered touchingly. John has a pleasant, warm vocal style—more vintage chianti classico than gin and tonic or whiskey sour. He made light of his delivery, as well as several under-performing recordings, in patter that brought to mind a nice, handsome guy playing guitar in your living room: self-deprecation with a light touch.

The tempo picked up considerably with a snappy "Come Fly With Me." In a nod to the Hanukkah celebrants in the room, Pizzarelli proffered an original tune called "Little Miracle." As he explained, "If Irving Berlin can write 'White Christmas,' why can't an Italian guitarist return the favor?" Pizzarelli reached back to Rodgers and Hart's 1938 Broadway hit "The Boys From Syracuse" for "Falling in Love With Love," caressing his way thru the lyric. Switching to his Kremona nylon-string acoustic flat-top (again, seven-stringed), he returned to R&H for "Where or When" from "Babes in Arms," this time rendered with a soothing samba feel. It wasn't a stretch to segue into Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Aguas de Marco" (Waters of March), culled from the album "Brazil" he made with Rosemary Clooney.

Next up: a medley of Johnny Mercer lyrics, including "Jeepers Creepers," "I'm Old Fashioned" and "I Thought About You." Pizzarelli, Thompson and Karn all blazed thru their solos on this one, which John followed with a solo outing on the Kremona, covering a rather unorthodox composition: Pat Metheny's "Last Train Home."

All of these holiday tunes and standards set us up for another Pizzarelli original, which he delivered with perhaps the most eye-popping fretwork of the evening. This composition "MJQ" segued into Vince Guaraldi's ear-wormish "Charlie Brown" theme from those Christmas TV specials. Before we knew it, an evening of fine music had come to an end.

The descriptor "debonair" may have fallen out of fashion, but I can't think of a better encomium to offer up in praise of John Pizzarelli's Blues Alley gig. Suave, sartorially resplendent without overdoing it, brilliant at his craft and easy with an anecdote, he's an elegant performer in the great tradition of Bobby Short, Steve Ross and Michael Feinstein. Bucky—who we lost in the early days of COVID—would be proud.

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