Knowing You
Inside the CD jacket forKnowing You, John Pizzarelli is pictured barefoot in a summery suit, his shirt untucked. The image nicely captures his unbuttoned approach to popular song. He doesn't have the strongest voice (his scat threatens to vaporize) and doesn't pin back your ears on guitar, but he gets inside the songs with such knowing ease and is so attuned to the demands of cabaret and jazz, he's difficult to resist. This time out, he goes beyond the constraints of his working group--which frequently includes his legendary father, rhythm guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli--to feature tenor saxophonist Harry Allen, clarinetist Ken Peplowski and pianist-organist Larry Goldings. Allen's Getzian solo helps transform the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" into a surprisingly effective vehicle. Pizzarelli and his wife, Broadway singer Jessica Molaskey, make Dave Frishberg's "Quality Time" a workaholic's delight. And there are first-rate renditions of Loesser and Kern, Cahn and Gershwin, making this one of Pizzarelli's best albums.--Lloyd Sachs