Last summer, when I saw Bill Charlap at Chautauqua, I commented that it was a unique experience for someone at my stage of life to have the opportunity to see a world class jazz musician perform in person. Much to my surprise, this happened again this month when Beth and Mike took me to Hartwood Acres for an outdoor concert by John Pizzarelli.
I have been aware of him for many years, primarily because of “Radio Deluxe”, a weekly program that he and his wife, Jessica Molaskey, host, focused largely on the Great American Songbook. Carried locally on WZUM on Sunday mornings, the show is a combination of tasteful recorded music and literate discussion of the songs and performers.
John is certainly one of the most successful current male vocalists as well as being a highly skilled jazz guitarist. We heard his father, Bucky Pizzarelli, at an Allegheny Jazz Society concert in Meadville many years ago. The concert was originally scheduled to feature legendary guitar player George van Eps. Some complication forced Bucky to perform as a last-minute substitute, a task he handled easily, to everyone’s satisfaction.
George van Eps is credited with introducing the seven-string guitar, with its capability of playing an independent bass line, into the jazz genre. Bucky Pizzarelli adopted this versatile instrument as well; his son John is perhaps its leading advocate today.
The opening group for the concert was announced as the Manchester Craftsman’s Guild All-Stars. As it turns out, we were familiar with five members of this septet, each of whom was part of the faculty at the Jazz Camp at Duquesne University that my grandson, Ian McCance, attended. Mike Tamaro led the group and played saxophone. The rest of the Duquesne contingent included Max Leake (piano), Paul Thompson (bass), Thomas Wendt (drums), and Jeff Bush (trombone),
Bush is a special favorite of mine; he’s the only other person I know who has any idea who Tommy Turk was. Serious readers of this column will remember my writing about Turk and the Deuces Wild at the Point Vue Inn in the 1950s. Jeff also performed at my retirement dinner at Pitt in 2019.
Also in the group were two excellent performers who are academicians elsewhere. Dr. James Moore (trumpet) is at West Virginia Wesleyan. He is famous for earning the very first Ph. D. from Nathan Davis’ Jazz Studies program at Pitt. Dr. Jason Kush (saxophone) is currently on the faculty at Slippery Rock; both he and Dr. Moore have extensive credentials as professional jazz performers.
This group followed “Get Me to the Church on Time” with less familiar jazz standards by Bill Evans, Thad Jones, and George Benson, clearly demonstrating their high level of skill, encouraging the audience to begin thinking “Who needs Pizzarelli?”. That question was quickly answered when the head-liner joined them. Pianist Isaiah Thompson replaced Leake; drummer Andy Watson, Wendt. The other five All-Stars stayed on stage and easily handled the thirteen-piece set that followed.
They opened with “With a Song in my Heart” and an arrangement that seemed very familiar to me, especially the trumpet solo. Sure enough, John reported that they had just played a Don Sebesky arrangement originally made for Chet Baker. They followed it with another Sebesky arrangement, “Dearly Beloved”, this one for the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, with Moore and Kush emulating the original soloists masterfully.
Although the full octet performed on a majority of the selections, occasionally (“Satin Doll” and “I Thought About You”) Pizzarelli performed with just the piano, bass, and drums trio. Paul Thompson certainly didn’t seem out of place with that group, reinforcing my suspicion that the very best of our local musicians are nearly on a par with the best in New York.
With two exceptions John Pizzarelli sang on all of the pieces. I have considered him to be an instrumentalist who is also an adequate vocalist. In this setting however he came across as an excellent singer who also played interesting guitar solos. The combination of excellent amplification and careful selection of material certainly produced an impressive vocal program.
One of the exceptions was “Martyni Time”, a jazz standard by Marty Paich. I was familiar with it because John frequently plays Paich’s version on Radio Deluxe. The other exception was their closing piece. I was complimenting myself on knowing all of the selections they had played; then flopped on the closer. When I emailed Jeff Bush to thank him for the performance, I included a question about it. He promptly replied that it was a Pizzarelli original “based on the chord structure of ‘I Found a New Baby’”.
This immediately highlighted the remarkable level of talent of these local musicians. To the several thousand people in the audience, the finished product of this octet seemed as professional as if they had played together for years. In reality, each of the locals had been handled a folder filled with highly sophisticated arrangements and was expected to play all of them comfortably. The most complicated piece was an interweaving of two Duke Ellington classics – “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” and “East St. Louis Toodle-O”. It was flawless –hard to believe these folks hadn’t performed it dozens of times before.
It is unfortunate that our society is so stratified that the audience for a big-name headliner numbers in the thousands, while one for a similar concert by “the Manchester Craftsman’s Guild All-Stars” would number in the dozens. Somehow we must re-prioritize our entertainment budget, dollars and time, in a fashion that will permit local artists to earn a reasonable living.
Many thanks to Allegheny County for sponsoring a lovely program in a lovely setting on a lovely August evening, and to Beth and Mike for making it possible for me to share it. We even had Cole Porter’s “August moon, burning above” to light our way back to our car.