Jazzy guitarist Pizzarelli brings trio to Walk Hall – JH News&Guide

Were one to play a musical degrees-of-separation game with guitarist-singer John Pizzarelli, you’d probably need only two or three steps to connect him to almost any jazz or pop music star of the past century.

Over his 50 or so years of performing and recording, Pizzarelli has collaborated with everyone from Benny Goodman and Les Paul to Paul McCartney and James Taylor. His discography includes dozens of albums made with his equally famous father (and first teacher), the late guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, and with his bassist brother Martin Pizzarelli and his vocalist wife Jessica Molaskey. He has recorded with the likes of ubiquitous jazz bassist Ray Brown, hot jazz progenitor violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and vocalists Rosemary Clooney, Debby Boone, Kristin Chenoweth and Natalie Cole. Pizzarelli has also paid loving musical tribute to heroes like Frank Sinatra (for whom he opened throughout the summer of 1993), Johnny Mercer, Duke Ellington, Pat Metheny, Antonio Carlos Jobim and the man he says inspired his career, Nat “King” Cole.

Pizzarelli and his trio companions of the past six years — pianist Isaiah J. Thompson and bassist Mike Karn — will touch on many of his influences and infatuations when they perform Thursday night in Walk Festival Hall, the final “Gateway” concert of Grand Teton Music Festival’s 2025 season.

“That type of ensemble, with a guitar or a vocalist, is scaled perfectly for the acoustics of Walk Festival Hall,” Executive Director Emma Kail said this March in previewing the festival’s 64th season. “Where artists really shine is when they’re accomplishing what they do acoustically, amplified just a little bit.”

The 65-year-old Pizzarelli has been credited with playing a major role in reinvigorating the Great American Songbook with dexterous and versatile work on his seven-string guitar (a preference he picked up from his dad) and his silky-smooth vocals. His most recent album, “Stage and Screen” (Palmetto Records, 2023), builds on the canon with tunes familiar and obscure from Broadway and Hollywood. He manages to warm up the hackneyed 1925 tune “Tea for Two,” underscores the clever humor of “I Love Betsy” from the 2013 stage version of “Honeymoon in Vegas,” and rips through a swinging version of “Coffee in a Cardboard Cup” from the forgotten 1971 musical “70, Girls, 70.”

On other albums, Pizzarelli expands on the tradition with covers of songs by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Tom Waits. His work co-producing and playing on James Taylor’s 2020 album “American Standard” yielded the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album award at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards.

Pizzarelli last performed in Jackson Hole in September 2007 as part of the inaugural season of the Center for the Arts theater. He and his trio will have a lot to catch audiences up on this week at Walk Hall.

Visit GTMF.org for info and tickets, or call the box office at 307-733-1128.

read the full story