The Great American Songbook is no longer limited to early 20th century jazz, pop and show tunes.
Sure, George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin will always be at the top of the heap of the canon of the Great American Songbook as well as the top of the heap of songwriters in general, but with time flying by and so many other great songwriters contributing tunes that have become part of the everyday vernacular, it may be time to loosen the admission policies and let a few latter half of the 20th century songwriters into the club. That would, of course, include The Beatles and Brian Wilson, Carole King and Joni Mitchell and the trio of Lamont Dozier and Brian and Eddie Holland, who wrote a load of Motown mainstays. This admission should also include the people behind hit songs that came out of Muscle Shoals as well as a load of familiar country artists.
Guitar player John Pizzarelli is also doing what he can to extend the Great American Songbook.
You’d file the New York City-based guitar player under jazz; and while his repertoire does include his own versions of tunes by the likes of Nat King Cole or Pat Metheny, he’s not afraid to dip into and reconstruct tunes by The Fab Four or cuts from their individual members, Donald Fagen or Neil Young.
Pizzarelli will perform Friday and Saturday (March 25 and 26) with two shows each night at The Lift at Cascade Village as part of the monthly Durango Cool Jazz performance series. Performing with Pizzarelli are Mike Karn on bass and Tadataka Unno on piano.
If you go
WHAT: Jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli.
WHEN: 5 and 8 p.m. Friday (March 25) and Saturday (March 26).
WHERE: The Lift at Cascade Village, 50827 U.S. Highway 550.
TICKETS: $150 includes dinner.
MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.durangocooljazz.com/john-pizzarelli/.
NOTE: A negative COVID-19 test or proof of vaccination is required to attend the performances.
Pizzarelli was born into a musical family. The son of guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, John first picked up a tenor banjo at age 6 before moving onto the guitar when he hit double digits. Rock bands followed, a genre that was supported by his jazz playing father “with the exception of the volume,” he jokes.
But his real foray into jazz and subsequent jazz education came when he started performing with his father.
“We had started to play together as a duo, and then we had this gig and that’s where I learned all the tunes I needed to learn, and I got everything under my hands on the guitar,” Pizzarelli said. “So basically, 1980 to 1990 we played everywhere and anywhere that they would have us, and that’s when everything started to happen.”
Since going solo, Pizzarelli has continued to write original material as well as seek out tunes to cover; it’s been a career-long quest, finding familiar tunes he can rearrange for the jazz audience, an expansion of his own palette, while also using these tunes to turn people onto jazz music.
“I was just sort of looking for more material. So, I just ended up finding material from The Beatles, or from what people were listening to on the radio,” he said. “I just figured I could draw in the jazz listener because we were still playing jazz but also the people that I grew up with would go, ‘Oh, I know these songs, but I don’t know the style of the music they’re playing,’ so I’m trying to mix it all together and try to get everybody in the same room.”
He’s a hip player. This weekend’s shows will feature tasty solos, the crooning of classic ballads and covers of anything from rock to Western Swing. When it comes to what he covers, its original genre doesn’t matter, as its sole requirement is if the song is good.
“It was always about the song,” Pizzarelli said. “If the song is good, you can do it in any style.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
