John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey Come To The Venetian Room

New York's Café Carlyle comes to life in San Francisco when Bay Area Cabaret presents the winners of New York's coveted Nightlife Award, jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli and his wife, Broadway star Jessica Molaskey (Tommy, Sunday in the Park with George). Having recorded over 20 albums, this duo blends musical genres seamlessly and intelligently in their newest smash hit Café Carlyle show "Heart of Saturday Night." The New York Times' Stephen Holden raves, "In wit and musical savvy, nothing matches these smart conceptual shows, in which Mr. Pizzarelli's jazz guitar and crooning and Ms. Molaskey's theatrical jazz singing fuse into something that's greater than the sum of its parts." Pizzarelli and Molaskey play one night only 5pm Sunday, March 13, 2011 at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont San Francisco (950 Mason Street). Tickets ($45) are available at www.bayareacabaret.org or by phone at City Box Office (415) 392-4400.

Peppered with hilarious anecdotes from his rich musical background and swathed in her captivating grace and theatricality, John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey's "Heart of Saturday Night" is an evening of delights for music and theatre lovers of all walks. Heralded as "a musical match made in heaven" by The New York Times, the show is a musical dialogue, poignantly pairing favorite songs with unexpected common themes-Irving Berlin's "Count Your Blessings" with hit song "Seasons of Love" from Rent or Gershwins' "Oh! Lady Be Good" with the tender "Something Good" by Richard Rodgers, to name a few. An eclectic smorgasbord, "Heart of Saturday Night" also includes the music of Duke Ellington, Tom Waits, Stephen Sondheim, Joni Mitchell, Count Basie, Cole Porter, and DeSylva, Brown & Henderson, as well as influences from jazz, Brazilian samba, and more, in an evening enhanced by the sparklingly clever banter and soulful stage presence of this husband and wife team.
John Pizzarelli, the world-renowned jazz guitarist and singer, was called "hip with a wink" by Town & Country, "madly creative" by the Los Angeles Times and "the genial genius of the guitar" by The Toronto Star. He and his wife, singer/actress Jessica Molaskey, along with his father, guitar legend Bucky Pizzarelli, were labeled "the First Family of Cool" by the San Francisco Chronicle and "the von Trapps on Martinis" by The New Yorker. According to The New York Times, "the Pizzarelli-Molaskey duo are as good as it gets in any entertainment medium."
Winner of both the New York Nightlife Award and the Montreal International Jazz Festival's 2009 Ella Fitzgerald Award and Grammy-nominated for his recent Richard Rodgers album, John Pizzarelli has established himself as one of the prime interpreters of the Great American Songbook. In addition to being a bandleader and solo performer, Pizzarelli has been a special guest on recordings for major pop names such as James Taylor, Natalie Cole, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Wopat, Rickie Lee Jones, Rosemary Clooney, Buddy DeFranco, and Harry Allen. Pizzarelli has performed on the country's most popular national television shows such as "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "The Late Show with David Letterman," "The CBS Early Show," and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Pizzarelli performs annual engagements at the Café Carlyle with Jessica Molaskey, at Birdland with his jazz combo, and tours throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Japan. Back at home, Pizzarelli and Molaskey host "Radio Deluxe," a syndicated radio show from their "deluxe livingroom atop Lexington Avenue," featuring interviews with guests from Liza Minnelli to Kurt Elling and a wide range of musical selections from the American Songbook, old and new.
Jessica Molaskey is a veteran of a dozen Broadway shows: Parade (directed by Hal Prince), Dream, Tommy, Sunday in the Park with George, Crazy For You, Les Misérables, City of Angels, Chess, Cats, and Oklahoma! She has performed off Broadway and regionally in dozens of productions, including A Man of No Importance at Lincoln Center.
Molaskey has premiered music written by Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Jason Robert Brown, Michael John LaChiusa, and Stephen Sondheim and John Bucchino. Along with her husband John Pizzarelli, Jessica hosts a weekly national radio program called Radio Deluxe.

Bay Area Cabaret, the local organization devoted to presenting audiences with top performers who expand the definition of cabaret, continues its season at the Fairmont Hotel's historic Venetian Room. Said Marilyn Levinson, Founding Executive Producer of Bay Area Cabaret, now in its seventh season, "The Venetian Room reigned supreme as America's premier supper club from 1947 to 1989. It was here that Tony Bennett introduced his signature song 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco' and show business legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Marlene Dietrich, Tina Turner, Joel Grey, Bobby Short, JAmes Brown, Vic Damone, Nat 'King' Cole, and many, many other performers held forth for more than four decades. We are thrilled and honored to reopen this historic room as a music venue, where we are presenting this generation's top Broadway, pop and jazz performers."

Bay Area Cabaret was founded by Marilyn Levinson, a fifth generation San Francisco native and niece of James Schwabacher, Jr., founder of San Francisco Opera's 27-year-old Schwabacher Debut Recital Series, MEROLA Opera Program and co-founder of San Francisco Performances. Bay Area Cabaret (BAC) is a not-for profit, all-volunteer organization, which presents extraordinary performances in a variety of elegant venues in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through its concert series and wide-ranging outreach activities, BAC aims to expand the definition of cabaret and broaden the audience for intimate entertainment, offering Great American Songbook entries from Harold Arlen and Stephen Sondheim to Jonathan Larson and Stevie Wonder. Past seasons have featured Sutton Foster, Christine Ebersole, Barbara Cook, television actors Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry, jazz diva Nnenna Freelon, Broadway stars Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley, sopranos Patricia Racette and Karen Slack, and multi-platinum songwriter and jazz vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway.

TICKETS: Tickets for individual concerts are $45 general/$40 subscribers and are available at www.bayareacabaret.org or by phone at City Box Office (415) 392-4400. Discounts for groups of 8 or more are available directly from Bay Area Cabaret at (415) 927-4636. For more information including audio and video samples call (415) 927-4636 or visit www.bayareacabaret.org.

 

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