[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. On the show, we've been celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month and we are happy to join John Pizzarelli in celebrating the 40th anniversary of his debut album, I'm Hip (Please Don't Tell My Father), the father, of course, being another great jazz guitarist, the late Bucky Pizzarelli. What's a musician to do on such a momentous anniversary? Why not put out an album? This Friday is the release day for Pizzarelli's new work titled Stage & Screen. We're going to get a preview today.

The album features songs from Hollywood movies alongside show tunes that span nearly a century of music. Let's take this classic, Tea for Two.

[MUSIC - John Pizzarelli: Tea for Two]

I'm discontented with homes that are rented so I have invented my own.

Darling this place is a lover's oasis where life's weary chase is unknown.

Far from the cry of the city, where flowers pretty caress the streams,

Cozy to hide in, to love side-by-side in. Don't let it abide in my dreams.

Darling, picture you upon my knee, just tea for two and two for tea,

Me for you and you for me, alone!

Alison Stewart: John Pizzarelli will be going on tour and kicking things off next week with a string of shows at Birdland between April 25th and 29th, and then in Morristown and Redbank New Jersey the first week of May, but first, he joins me in studio for a listening party preview. John, welcome back.

John Pizzarelli: It's nice to be here. Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: The album combines music from stage shows and from Hollywood movies. You could have done a whole album of each. Why the combination?

John Pizzarelli: As we got back to work, Isaiah Thompson on piano and Mike Karn on bass, and myself, we just started picking tunes to play and start a new repertoire. As it turned out, there was Stage & Screen inside the new repertoire. It's that simple, and then they're both things that are near and dear to me, but that was what happened.

Alison Stewart: Have you noticed or do you notice or maybe you can share with us the different patterns in the way songs are written for stage or written for screen?

John Pizzarelli: As a matter of fact, on the record, there's a song called I Love Betsy, written by Jason Robert Brown, and there are three basic verses to it, but when you see the show, between the second and third verse, there's something that talks about the guy who was singing about his relationship with his mother. I said to Jason, "Would it be okay if I just took that part out and presented the song as a list song of the reasons the things he likes and loving Betsy," and Jason said sure. That was an idea of taking it out of the show and making it into a pop song in a sense.

Alison Stewart: Well, let's listen to I Love Betsy.

[MUSIC - John Pizzarelli: I Love Betsy]

I like taxis,

I like trains,

I like Brooklyn when it rains

But I love Betsy

I like walking after dark,

I like jogs in Prospect Park

But I love Betsy

I like Shake Shack,

I like MOMA,

And New Jersey's ripe aroma

The parade's when I see them and even the DMV

And the Brooklyn Bridge by bike

Heck, there's lots of stuff I like

But I love Betsy and she loves me

She likes hockey, no I swear

She likes guys with thinning hair

And I love Betsy

Alison Stewart: That's from Honeymoon In Vegas from 2015. There's a line in there just like Jay-Z and Beyonce, I will make her my fiance.

John Pizzarelli: I will make her my fiance.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Such a great line, but it's interesting because, of course, we heard Tea for Two which is such a classic and lovingly old-fashioned.

John Pizzarelli: And probably the oldest song on the record too. It was from the first gig that I did in New York City as a union member. At Michael's Pub in 1979 we did a show of all the songs from No, No, Nanette, and so there was that one and I Want to Be Happy, the two big hits. That's how that one got on there, I guess.

Alison Stewart: Well, so you've got Tea for Two and then to a song with Shake Shack in--

John Pizzarelli: In MoMA and now the whole thing.

Alison Stewart: How do you think about what makes a song a standard? Does it necessarily have to do with the time it was written, I suppose?

John Pizzarelli: The time it was written, and I think also the idea that they're vignettes of 32-bar songs that are memorable. I always think of them as snapshots in your wallet. When you think about a special moment or on your phone now you go to, "Oh, there's that day." Those songs represent that, I think, in certain ways. Like Tea for Two is a ballad for me, is a completely different song than as if it's a different tempo. It takes it back to remembering Blossom Dearie singing it on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, those kinds of things.

I remember hearing Betsy as the opening number at Honeymoon in Vegas and thinking, "That's a great song." They hit you that way.

Alison Stewart: My guest is John Pizzarelli. The new album is called Stage & Screen. It'll be out on April 21st. He's playing Birdland, April 25th to the 29th, Morristown on May 5th, and Red Bank, New Jersey on May 6th. You mentioned the No, No, Nanette track, I Want to Be Happy. Now this one's an instrumental, right?

John Pizzarelli: Yes. This was just another thing when coming back to work where we'd say, "Hey, let's just play I Want to Be Happy. It's a classic jazz standard." It got right into the repertoire and made it onto the record.

Alison Stewart: Let's take a listen to I Want to Be Happy.

[MUSIC - John Pizzarelli: I Want To Be Happy]

Alison Stewart: Yes, I want to be happy. It's funny, I was going to ask you, oh, I wonder why you did instrumental and no vocals, but then I feel like there are vocals. [laughter] I feel like that orchestration or that arrangement, somebody is talking to me.

John Pizzarelli: Oh, there you go.

Alison Stewart: Who's talking to me? The guitar is talking to me.

John Pizzarelli: The guitar had a lot to say on that one, I think. [laughter] He used a little more than his vocabulary can handle. There's a great record that Stan Getz made with the Oscar Peterson Trio that I've always loved. It's one of those songs that when we first got together we got to play it a lot as an instrumental just to be loose on a bandstand and so I was happy that we could include it in this package.

Alison Stewart: When you are approaching a song and you know you want to make a change like the song, I Love Betsy, when you make a change, what's the protocol on something like that?

John Pizzarelli: Well, in the Betsy song, I was lucky enough to know Jason and to ask him about that.

Alison Stewart: Jason Robert Brown.

John Pizzarelli: Yes, Jason Robert Brown. On most of the other things, I pretty much stay strict to the material. There's not too much. I remember once Jessica and I, my wife, we worked together at the Carlyle every fall and there was a Sondheim. Just one word in the Sondheim thing we were going to change just to make it work outside of the show. I don't even remember if we called him or not because we were too scared. [laughter] I don't even think we ended up doing that, but those kinds of things.

I think in general, we tried to stick to the melodies and the music as it was written unless we know people and we can ask them about it.

Alison Stewart: When do you know that you want to change something? Is it a matter of the lyric doesn't feel right or you just really want to experiment?

John Pizzarelli: No. In my case, there's really not a lot of time to change things. It's just that one section in Betsy was something changeable. In my case, I think the other thing is, is whether or not you want to do the verse. Like you heard the verse on Tea for Two. There's a lot of those extra little things that sometimes aren't done so going through shit music and finding copies of things you see verses of songs that may not have heard before, and that was the case of that research. [laughs]

Alison Stewart: What's your feeling about approaching a song that is so well known? One of the things I really loved about Tea for Two is it was unexpected and it's so used to having it hit your ear a certain way. It's a different song and that's ballad form. When you have a song that's really well known, there's another one on as time goes by, how do you think about, "Yes, I'm going to change this up a little bit."

John Pizzarelli: Well the same thing with As Time Goes By, I did the verse with that too, which is I'd heard Tony Bennett do it 45, 50 years ago on a record. I always included it and that's always just something that I'm aware of too. Tempos are important. Sometimes they happen on gigs where you just say, "Why don't we just play this one as a ballad tonight or play this one faster?" those kinds of things. Sometimes it works and then if it works live, you think, "Well, maybe we can do it in the studio next time. Keep these things in mind."

There's that constant idea of testing things out in front of people that we try to do anyway.

Alison Stewart: What do you think it does to include that prelude like we heard in Tea for Two?

John Pizzarelli: In the case of Tea for Two I think it's a beautiful way of setting up the song unless-- so many people I think maybe are used to hearing tu tu tu tu tu tu you always were tilting our heads back and forth, [laughter] I was so struck by it when I heard it on that television show, and I heard Blossom Dearie sing it on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel that one night during the pandemic and went, "Oh my God, that's a whole other way to look at it." Then I've always known the verse my father had said to me years ago, he goes, "That's a verse. You got to know that verse."

That was something, and so keeping those things in mind when putting together a package of music is important.

Alison Stewart: I want to play As Time Goes By. What would you like people to listen for?

John Pizzarelli: The brilliance of my vocal performance? No, I mean, just-- [laughter]

Alison Stewart: This is from John Pizzarelli.

[music]

[MUSIC - John Pizzarelli: As Time Goes By]

This day and age we're living in

Gives cause for apprehension

With speed and new invention

And things like third dimension

Still we get a trifle weary

With Mr. Einstein's theory

So we must get down to earth at times

Relax relieve the tension

And no matter what the progress

Or what may yet be proved

The simple facts of life are such

They cannot be removed

You must remember this

A kiss is just a kiss,

A sigh is just a sigh

The fundamental things apply

As time goes by

And when two lovers woo

They still say, "I love you"

On that you can rely

No matter what the future brings

As time goes by

Alison Stewart: I say, listen for that fabulous annunciation. That,-

John Pizzarelli: Thank you very much.

Alison Stewart: -it's so great. It's so crisp.

John Pizzarelli: As I listened to the interplay between the three of us, Isaiah on piano and Mike on bass, the beauty of it is playing a ballad like that is-- I have to be a guitar player as well as a singer inside that group. I love listening to the rhythm section play around the vocal. That's what makes me happy. [chuckles]

Alison Stewart: Tell us a little bit about this trio. It's a fairly new trio for you.

John Pizzarelli: Isaiah J. Thompson joined the band as a 23-year-old in 2019 right out of Julliard. Michael Karn has been in the band for seven years now, and we finally got to go on the road last year and more on the road full-time this year. It's a great group if not just for the greatness of this young, fantastic piano player, Isaiah J Thompson. He's just marvelous. The group is hitting it pretty good at the moment. We're very proud of our accomplishments.

Alison Stewart: What's been interesting to you to having a multi-generational trio?

John Pizzarelli: It's great. The car rides alone are exciting When I go out on the car with Isaiah and we drive and it's four hours and he plays music for me and I play music for him, I learn a lot more I think from being in the car with him than he does for me. [chuckles] I'm constantly learning from those two guys.

Alison Stewart: What's something you've picked up or artists that you heard of and thought like, "Huh, I'm going to check that out."

John Pizzarelli: There's a piano player, Phineas Newborn, and he's a big Ahmad Jamal fan. The way those musicians approach the same tunes that we were doing, he'd say, well, here's something that they're doing that we do, but they're doing it differently. Isn't this interesting? Those kinds of conversations that I like to play Old Nat King Cole Trio records for him and point those things out to him too so it really is-- That's the hardest part of being in a group. It's not making music so great together. It's being able to be in car rides for four hours and go, "This is working very well." [laughs]

Alison Stewart: I guess John Pizzarelli, the new album is called Stage & Screen. Let's play on the track for a minute. This is Oklahoma Suite.

[MUSIC - John Pizzarelli: Oklahoma Suite]

Alison Stewart: John, you're going to be performing at Birdland next Tuesday through Saturday and then going on tour. What can you do in a residency like that that you might not be able to do in a one-night stand? [laughs]

John Pizzarelli: Oh, it's great to play 10 shows over a period of five nights. Birdland is a real home for us. It is exciting. It's good to see our friends out come now to hear us, and we just we'll play things from the record and then we fake things too that just depending on what happens. There always is an element of surprise even to us.

Alison Stewart: As I mentioned at the top, it's the 40th anniversary of your debut album. What do anniversaries mean to you? What does this anniversary mean to you?

John Pizzarelli: It means I've been able to keep a job for 40 years. [laughter] I'm able to do something that I really like to do. I get to play the songs I like and it's weird to think that 40 years ago I was just starting out doing that, but I have my father to thank for that. It's been quite an interesting 40 years. Say the least.

Alison Stewart: The name of the album, Stage & Screen. It's out this Friday, April 21st. John Pizzarelli will be at Birdland April 25th through the 29th. Be in Morrison and Redbank, New Jersey the first week in May. Thank you so much for coming to the studio.

John Pizzarelli: Thank you very much. We'll see you at Birdland and all around the country as a matter of fact.

Alison Stewart: We went digging in the WNYC archives the last time you were here in our studio in 2019 with your wife Jessica Molaskey, and you played live for us so we dug it up and thought we'd go out on it.

John Pizzarelli: Fantastic.

Alison Stewart: Here is Straighten Up and Fly Right.

[MUSIC - John Pizzarelli: Straighten Up and Fly Right]

A buzzard took the monkey for a ride in the air

The monkey thought that ev'rything was on the square

The buzzard tried to throw the monkey off his back

The monkey looked his neck and said, "Now, listen, Jack

Straighten up and fly right, straighten up and stay right

Straighten up and fly right, a cool down papa, don't you blow your top

Ain't no use in divin'. What's the use of jivin'?

Straighten up and fly right, a cool down papa, don't you blow your top"

The buzzard told the monkey, "You're choking me

Release your hold and I'll set you free"

The monkey looked the buzzard right dead in the eye and said

"Your story's touching, but is sounds like a lie"

Straighten up and fly right, straighten up and stay right

Straighten up and fly right, a cool down papa, don't you blow your top

Alison Stewart: Tomorrow's show the classical music Camelot has been reimagined by writer Aaron Sorkin and Director Bartlett Cher. On tomorrow's show, we'll speak with that creative team as well as leading lady Phillipa Soo who stars Guinevere. Come to Camelot tomorrow on All Of It. That is All Of It for today. I'm Alison Stewart, I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.

[MUSIC - John Pizzarelli: Straighten Up and Fly Right]

 

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