John Pizzarelli has cultivated a winning career by singing classic
standards and late-night ballads and playing sublime and inventive
guitar that has won over a new audience ready to swing and swoon. Using
greats like Nat "King" Cole and Frank Sinatra and the songs of writers
like Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen as touchstones, Pizzarelli is among
the prime revivalists of the popular American songbook, bringing to his
work the cool jazz flavor of his brilliant guitar playing.
Pizzarelli has been playing guitar since age six, following in the
tradition of his father, jazz guitar great Bucky Pizzarelli. Hanging out
with his father, John was exposed to all the great jazz music of the
era, from Erroll Garner and Les Paul to Django Reinhardt. At 20, he
began playing with his father. Then, he went out on his own, and since
1992, the Pizzarelli Trio has toured Europe and the United States
extensively. In 1993, they received the honor of opening tour dates for
Frank Sinatra and joined in the celebration for Sinatra's 80th birthday
at Carnegie Hall.
Along the way, Pizzarelli has earned rave reviews. "The John Pizzarelli
Trio has never been tighter, and Pizzarelli himself has never been
looser," the Village Voice said of a recent 1998 New York show. "We can
say we're as lucky to listen to (Pizzarelli) as Nat Cole fans were in
the years before he became a legend."
