Album Review: Pizzarelli & Pals Partner To Play Their Punctillious Poetry & It's A Party On STAGE & SCREEN

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby's CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

If you like smooth Jazz, dear Bobby readers - this is it. If you like standards, there's plenty, If you like movies, you've got em, and if you like musical theatre, pull up a seat and listen to a fellow fan play old tunes in new ways because this week's album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from jazz guitar great, John Pizzarelli. With this latest album, dropped last month from Palmetto Records, the amazing John Pizzarelli Trio brings you some of the best from the STAGE & SCREEN. The partnership of Pizzarelli with long-time trio pals Mike Karn (bassist) and Isaiah J. Thompson (pianist ) is a golden one, and to hear these three playing as one, passing phrases and licks back and forth, catching each other like trapeze artists, is a treat, whether you go see them live or pick up this (or any) album by these consummate music makers. With this new album, Pizzarelli & Co. explore (in a jazz kind of way) truly immortal songs of the past 90ish years, by culling from the treasuries of the Broadway stage and Hollywood's silver screen era. TBH, my rainbow children, it will be hard for Little Bobby to review because, aside from how FAB it is, the words cool, and HOT, and smooth are all that are popping up in our little noggin' and we may have to pull a Barbara Stanwyck and use golden oldies like groovy, jump, jam, in the pocket, clinker, alreet, hepcat (well, maybe not), and, well... cool. This album is a new kind of adventure for Pizzarelli and what he calls his drumless trio.

JP has woven together a setlist spanning nearly nine decades, with cuts 3 & 4 being the grandparents of the set, as both originated from the 1925 Broadway hit NO, NO, NANETTE - I WANT TO BE HAPPY and TEA FOR TWO. HAPPY is one of four numbers that go sans Pizzarelli vocals, completely instrumental, and, with this arrangement, this old tune is made to jump. In fact, NO, NO NANETTE was never like this, and with the wild improv solos from all 3, the term rock the joint comes to mind, as does WOW! TEA, however, is a soft and gentle aire after the wild ride of cut 3, starting with its lovely verse that is rarely heard. Pizzarelli has a smooth croon and, on this number, is giving it a touch of an old-fashioned style that he passes to Thompson's piano for a float down the river of his keys. His right and left-hand playings are captivating in their intricacy AND intimacy. The superb jazz arrangement tops it off with a great bass lick by Karn at the end. Along with his creamy vocals, one of the remarkable things Pizzarelli does in performance is scat-sing along with his guitar, almost in a unison duet with his guitar playing and his voice as conjoined instruments. Opening his first number, TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT, with this technique, he makes the brave move to do it again on song number 2, the Jason Robert Brown Sinatra-esque I LOVE BESTY (from HONEYMOON IN VEGAS), and, in brief, the song is jumping with this arrangement. The trio is so tight and can anticipate each other perfectly. Thompson's piano solo is, in a word, HOT, Karn's bass is gentle and fast as lightning, and JP's warm voice is terrific and totally ... yes we're saying it... cool. Another completely instrumental number is their jazz trio take/mash-up of songs from Rogers & Hammerstein's OKLAHOMA. This one is surprising (because it's OKLAHOMA), and so very tight, with phrases flowing like water between the three players. There's also something touchingly nostalgic here, until it stops being nostalgic and becomes a totally modern jam.

The last two cuts on the album are this rainbow writer's faves and it is worth the price of the album just for these two. In AS TIME GOES BY (the greatest movie song of all time), Pizzarelli's buttery voice, along with superb support from his partners, opens with another of those rarely heard intro verses, performed here with a sort of free tempo alacrity (what? Bobby knows words?!) that folds into the familiar beat of the words and music we all know. The addition of LA MARSEILLAISE in his guitar, in the final strains, is a fab little drop-in, and a nod to the greatest scene in one of the great movies, where all the French nationals in Rick's begin singing their national anthem in defiance of the NAZIS present - clever, fun, and nostalgically appropriate. Then it's back to The Broadway with Kander & Ebb's COFFEE IN A CARDBOARD CUP (70 GIRLS 70) which is, quite frankly, another J-A-M. Pizzarelli's singing the opening verse leads to fast, fast, fast improv solos from each of the trio... blindingly fast with more of his wonderful singing along with his guitar. One is left to wonder if perhaps his practice of externalizing his playing with his voice just became a part of the act. In any case, it's a technique that is as wonderful to hear as this entire album. Bobby is so happy that this one filtered its way onto our desk because it is destined to be a classic of the jazz repertoire, and although our initial thought, as we listened to John Pizzarelli's STAGE & SCREEN, was, "There aren't really words to describe how good this is," we seem to have found a few and all that is left to say is...

This one gets 5 Out Of 5 Rainbows - Put STAGE & SCREEN in your collection or stream today: HERE

You Can See And Hear Everything About John Pizzarelli On His Webbysite: HERE

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