John Pizzarelli

John Pizzarelli performs as both guitarist and vocalist, delivering energetic shows through his understated singing, engaging platform manner, and facility with buoyant traditional jazz. As the child of the late guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, he first gained recognition through his distinctive sophisticated readings of jazz standards and American popular songs on albums that reached the Top Ten of the Billboard Traditional Jazz chart, among them the 1997 release Our Love Is Here to Stay and the 2005 album Knowing You. In tandem with his praised Broadway work, he has pursued directions outside swing conventions, including the Brazilian-tinged 2004 album Bossa Nova, the 2015 Paul McCartney tribute Midnight McCartney, and the 2021 solo guitar project Better Days Ahead: Solo Guitar Takes on Pat Metheny. Even so, classic Hollywood and Broadway show tunes continue to form a central interest, reflected in the 2023 trio album Stage and Screen.

Born in 1960 in Paterson, New Jersey, Pizzarelli was immersed in jazz from childhood as the son of the working swing guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli. He began playing guitar young, taking cues from Les Paul and Django Reinhardt while sampling styles that ranged from rockabilly to singer/songwriter folk. After a short enrollment at the University of Tampa, he returned to New York to launch his music career. Together with his brother, bassist Martin Pizzarelli, he started appearing alongside his father and made his first recording with the 1983 album I'm Hip -- Please Don't Tell My Father. Pizzarelli's refreshed traditional sound attracted numerous jazz traditionalists, leading his trio by 1993 to open for legendary singer Frank Sinatra; he also took part in Sinatra's 80th birthday event at Carnegie Hall. His rising profile earned him the starring role in the 1997 Broadway production Dream, a tribute to composer Johnny Mercer.

Pizzarelli's 1998 RCA album Meets the Beatles presented his reinterpretations of classic songs by the iconic Liverpool quartet, while the next year he honored one of his primary influences, pianist/vocalist Nat King Cole, on P.S. Mr. Cole. He joined the Telarc label in 1999 and issued two standards-focused albums, Kisses in the Rain and Let There Be Love, in 2000. He further recorded with pianist George Shearing and marked a decade of trio performances by releasing the live album Live at Birdland in 2003.

Stepping away from swing material, Pizzarelli issued Bossa Nova in 2004. The recording centered largely on works by Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and highlighted the Pizzarelli Trio on such genre classics as "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Aguas de Marco" ("Waters of March"). In 2005 he resumed his customary American standards repertoire with Knowing You (though he wrote the title track himself), then, accompanied by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, offered his salute to the icon with the 2006 album Dear Mr. Sinatra. With a Song in My Heart, devoted to the songs of composer Richard Rodgers, appeared in 2008.

During the 2000s Pizzarelli also met and married singer Jessica Molaskey, collaborating with her frequently in performance and on recordings such as the 2003 album A Good Day and the 2008 release A Kiss to Build a Dream On. Additional projects with his father and brother included the 2007 album Generations and the 2009 set Pizzarelli Party.

In 2010 Pizzarelli saluted legendary pianist/bandleader Duke Ellington on Rockin' in Rhythm: A Duke Ellington Tribute. The following year he again joined his father and brother for Family Fugue. In 2012 he released Double Exposure, containing his versions of both classic jazz standards and contemporary pop standards from his youth, among them pieces by Elvis Costello, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, and others. Three years afterward he paid tribute to Paul McCartney with the atmospheric, restrained album Midnight McCartney, which included a guest appearance by his father. In 2017 came Sinatra & Jobim at 50, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark 1967 album Francis Albert Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim. The sequence of affectionate tributes continued in 2019 with For Centennial Reasons: 100 Year Salute to Nat King Cole.

Pizzarelli's father, Bucky Pizzarelli, passed away in 2019 at age 94 from complications related to the COVID-19 virus. Pizzarelli later resumed studio work and, in 2021, revisited an early guitar inspiration on Better Days Ahead: Solo Guitar Takes on Pat Metheny. For the 2023 trio album Stage and Screen he supplied affectionate interpretations of selected favorite Broadway musical numbers and classic Hollywood soundtrack songs.