John Pizzarelli Trio To Perform In Cooperstown On August 5

World-renowned jazz guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli will perform at the Otesaga Resort Hotel ballroom on Sunday, August 5 at 7:30pm as part of the 20th anniversary season of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival.

Pizzarelli will be joined by Mike Karn, bass, and Andy Watson, drums, to perform works of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Antonio Carlos Jobim, among others.

Considered one of the foremost interpreters of the American Songbook, Pizzarelli is known for expanding this repertoire by applying jazz idioms to the work of popular songwriters such as Paul McCartney, Tom Waits and the Allman Brothers Band. His covers of Mr. McCartney's songs, found on his album titled Midnight McCartney, reached the number 4 position on Billboard's Jazz Album charts.

More recently Pizzarelli's projects have focused on the bossa nova of Brazilian composer and musician Antonio Carlos Jobim, including recording of a collaborative album with Daniel Jobim, Antonio's grandson. Music of Jobim will be among the pieces performed on the August 5th concert in Cooperstown.

Pizzarelli is also known among fans for his love of baseball, which gives his concert in Cooperstown a special significance. He apparently harbored professional athletic aspirations that did not come to pass; he told the American Federation of Musicians Magazine in a 2003 interview that he "couldn't hit a curve ball," which made him realize that "there was a reason why I was going to band practice."

Regardless of his batting abilities on the field, Cooperstown Summer Music Festival founder and artistic director Linda Chesis feels confident that with his program of music by jazz greats like Gershwin, Ellington and Jobim, Pizzarelli will "knock it out of the park at our concert in Cooperstown!"

Pizzarelli's performance is the first of four August concerts in the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival's lineup. The festival, founded by Chesis and celebrating its 20th anniversary season, is dedicated to bringing world-class musical performances of all genres to Cooperstown audiences.

This performance is sponsored in part by WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for students.

Purchase online at www.cooperstownmusicfest.org; by phone through Brown Paper Tickets, (800) 838-3006, or at the door.

There is no service charge for tickets purchased online or by phone.

ABOUT THE COOPERSTOWN SUMMER MUSIC FESTIVAL:

Founded in 1999, the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival has been bringing world-class chamber music performances to the Cooperstown area for 20 years. The festival has featured performances by the Tokyo String Quartet, the American String Quartet, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, Kurt Elling, Tim Fain, Bill Charlap, Hilary Kole, Simone Dinnerstein, Mark O'Connor, the Sonia Olla Flamenco Dance Company, and many more.

Cooperstown is home to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the Glimmerglass Festival, and the Fenimore Art Museum as well as many galleries, restaurants, and a historic Main Street.

Concerts are held in venues across Cooperstown, including Christ Church (the church of author James Fenimore Cooper) and the ballroom of the grand Otesaga Hotel.

Celebrated graphic artist Milton Glaser (best known for the I Y NY campaign) has created a series of 17 posters for the Festival featuring violins and cows, a nod to Cooperstown's rural character. Performance Today host Fred Child has said, "Not only do they do interesting concerts, they have great posters."

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

See cooperstownmusicfest.org for details.

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