Review: JOHN PIZZARELLI & JESSICA MOLASKEY: EAST SIDE AFTER DARK Lights Up the Night at Café Carlyle

Once upon a time, there was a nocturnal world that existed on the East Side of New York. A world where low-down jazz met uptown society, where tuxedoed maître d's greeted you by name and ushered you to a table where dining was not a meal, but an event. The conversation in dimly-lit rooms was about business and books and gossip and was accompanied by the infectious music of clinking ice cubes in highball glasses and the percussion of toasts to happy memories and the expectation of better days to come. That is, at least until the real music began. Singers cast a spell over these revelers. Artists with names like Ellington, Davis, Getz, Shearing, McPartland, Gillespie, Short, and Coleman held court over a retinue of faithful devotees. This long-ago world of the supper club exists mostly in memory today like a beautiful dried rose pressed between the pages of a jazz age novel.

But there is one place on the modern East Side where that world of NY cognoscenti is as alive and vibrant as it ever was. Café Carlyle is the perfect setting for John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey's show EAST SIDE AFTER DARK. They serve up tune after tune from that 50s and 60s scene where life didn't begin until after sunset and jazz was the currency of the smart set. Pizzarelli, son of jazz great Bucky Pizzarelli, is a world-class guitarist who has worked with a long list of luminaries including Rosemary Clooney, James Taylor, and Paul McCartney. He has recorded 20 solo albums and has appeared on at least twice that number for other artists. Jessica Molaskey, a Broadway baby if ever there was one, has appeared in a dozen or more hit shows including Sunday in the Park With George, Cats, Crazy For You, Chess, Oklahoma!, City of Angels, Parade, A Man of No Importance, and Songs For a New World to name only a few.

Not only is this married duo blessed with impeccable musicianship, but they also have great stories and a charming habit of finishing each other's sentences. John Pizzarelli is an enthusiastic raconteur, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of middle-period jazz because he grew up surrounded by it. Molaskey was not born with a jazz pedigree, but knows the world inside and out and is a consummate actress. The show they have put together is full of treasures and surprises. From the first scats of "Cheerful Little Earful," the Harry Warren-Ira Gershwin tune that was a hit for Ella Fitzgerald, it is clear you are in the hands of two jazz pros.

They combined two Broadway tunes about Gotham into a sweet mashup with the Schwartz-Dietz tune "When You're Far Away From New York" nicely dovetailing into Rodgers and Hart's "Manhattan." They shared a Bucky Pizzarelli story that's too good to give away here as a lead in to Kern and Field's "Pick Yourself Up." They combined two romantic "after dark" songs that were dedicated to some personal heroes. Jimmy Van Heusen's "Moonlight Becomes You," which was a hit for Rosemary Clooney, and "Moonlight Savings Time," which was one of Blossom Dearie's signature tunes.

Jessica Molaskey also displayed her gifts as a lyricist last evening. Pizzarelli sang a tune from his first album, the witty "I'm Hip." Molaskey, who confided that she was premiering a brand new titanium hip, countered with her own lyrics entitled "My Hip." They gave us a lesson in the Jobim-influenced bossa nova craze of the 60s with a bossa nova arrangement of the Beatles' "Fool on the Hill" before walking us through the world of "specialty material" with "Reader's Digest." Again Molaskey contributed some verses of her own to update Comden and Green's song to the modern day. They further entertainingly instructed us on the 60's trend of adding lyrics to the jazz inventions of instrumentalists with a riff on Miles Davis' "Seven Steps to Heaven" fitted out with Jessica Molaskey's lyrics entitled "Twelve Steps to Heaven." It was a funny and squeamish examination of online dating apps.

John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey were not alone onstage last night. They were aided by the pianistic brilliance of Isaiah J. Thompson and the great invention of Mike Karn on bass. To call these two musicians "support" is to completely undervalue their artistry. Thompson's music crackled with virtuosity in his solos. His dynamic control is nothing short of remarkable and the rapidity of some passages had me checking his hands to make sure he didn't have a few extra fingers. Karn is a superlative sideman whose solos delightfully went in unexpected directions. It was like listening to a really good conversation. Together with Pizzarelli, Thompson and Karn were best displayed in a tribute to George Shearing. In "Lullabye of Birdland" all three did stunning solo work.

The last third of the concert was devoted to some of Pizzarelli and Molaskey's musical influences. They saluted Mabel Mercer with "There Will Never Be Another You" combined with "Nobody Else But Me." They tipped their hats to Anita O'Day with "Honeysuckle Rose." John Pizzarelli's solo in this tune was especially fine. And they gave us Rodgers and Hammerstein's "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" with a particularly James Taylor-like vibe about it. In fact, Taylor recorded Pizzarelli's arrangement. They closed the night with a rollicking up-tempo reading of Rodgers and Hart's "Mountain Greenery" that left everyone yelling for more. Their show was a marvelous time capsule of a history lesson that never ventured into pedantic territory. It was fresh and inventive and joyful. They are at the Carlyle through November 19. Treat yourself to this quintessential New York experience.

For more about John Pizzarelli, visit johnpizzarelli.com. To learn more about Jessica Molaskey, go to jessicamolaskey.com. Check out Isaiah J. Thompson at isaiahjthompson.com. Find Mike Karn at newschool.edu.>jazz>faculty>mike-karn. All four artists can be found on Spotify and all other streaming platforms. For tickets to other great shows at Café Carlyle, go to rosewoodhotels.com>dining>cafe-carlyle.

To post a comment, you must register and login.