John Pizzarelli's latest album

Diaa Bekheet | Washington, DC – Jazz legend John Pizzarelli is getting ready to release his new album Double Exposure, a collection of great pop oldies rearranged and recast in a jazz style. Pizzarelli is one of the most versatile guitarists and singers on the jazz scene today. His latest album, which is proving the idea that jazz and pop can exist together, has taken everyone by surprise.

With a collection of 13 pop, rock and folk songs from a different generation, Double Exposure opens with Pizzarelli’s reversioned Beatles‘ upbeat song,” I feel Fine”. The soft spoken Pizzarelli and his band initially road tested songs during a performance last year at the renowned Birdland jazz club in New York City.  Pizzaelli and his band played Lee Morgan’s “Sidewinder” incorporating the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” inside.  The mix was well-received and drew applause.

Pizzarelli  also rearranged other oldies on Double Exposure, including Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” James Taylor’s “Traffic Jam,” the Allman Brothers classic “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed,”  Joni Mitchell’s “Free Man In Paris,” Tom Waits’ “Drunk On The Moon,” Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller’s “Ruby Baby,” and songs by Billy Joel and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.

The album ends with a subtle remake of Seals and Crofts’ 1973 soft rock hit “Diamond Girl,” which quotes directly from Miles Davis’ 1950’s iconic “So What.”

“It’s funny – when we first did ‘Diamond Girl’ and a lot of the horn songs we actually got to play live at Birdland about a year ago just to see if this idea was anything,” said Pizzarelli in an interview with VOA’s Jazz Beat. “We actually played ‘So What’ and then sang ‘Diamond Girl’.”  Pizzarelli said people liked the new style very much.

Listen to John Pizzarelli and selected songs from Double Exposure:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

John Pizzarelli was born in New Jersey in April 1960. He grew up in a house crowded with guitars, and everybody in his family played an instrument at one time or another. His father is the iconic guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli.

“There were guitars in the house all the time. I once joked that if you wanted to sit down on the couch, you had to move a guitar you know,” said Pizzarelli who is known for his charming stage presence. “And eventually you say I’m moving this guitar very much I’ve got to try and play it. It was just something that we did and I didn’t even realize that I was making a living doing it.”

In his 20s, John Pizzarelli used to go out on jazz, pop and rock gigs, having a good time and getting a check. “It was just something that we enjoyed. I was making a living doing it. So, It’s very interesting how this sort of evolved,” he said.

Guitarist and composer John Pizzarelli

Besides his father and sister, Pizzarelli was highly influenced by the legendary vocalist and pianist Nat King Cole, trumpeter Miles Davis, singer Frank Sinatra, pianist Duke Ellington, The Beatles, saxophonist Stan Getz and songwriter-arranger-guitarist-pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim.

With more than 40 albums under his belt, Pizzarelli is a prolific guitarist who has worked in a vast range of studio settings with many famous musicians – most recently in February – with Beatles legend Paul McCartney for an iTunes concert at Capital Records Studios in Hollywood, California.

“I made the record “Kisses on the Bottom” with him and Diana Krall was the piano player… and I got to play with him on the Grammy,” Pizzarelli said. “He [Paul McCartney] is just as humble and as lovely a musician as you could find, and a really talented musician.”

In 1998, Pizzarelli released his studio album, John Pizzarelli Meets the Beatles, as a tribute to the Fab Four (The Beatles). The idea for one of the most talked-about albums was to recast and re-imagine some of the great oldies in a jazz setting. So he placed the songs into a different time as if someone else had performed them first. For instance, he rearranged “Here Comes The Sun” in a Brazilian Bossa Nova style – it was meant as a Jobim/Getz tribute.

Pizzarelli, who is also a radio host and a television personality, has just returned to the United States from a European tour where he performed and promoted Double Exposure. The album is slated for release in May.

For more on jazz music, listen to VOA’s Jazz America

Guitar Man by George Benson

Diaa Bekheet | Washington, DC – Contemporary jazz guitarist and vocalist George Benson has released a new album titled Guitar Man. It’s a collection of great music showcasing his unparalleled guitar playing. Primarily arranged by musical director and pianist David Garfield, Guitar Man includes the funky “Tequila” featuring piano work by Joe Sample and percussion by Lenny Castro.

The album has 11 other re-imagined smooth jazz and pop songs by great musicians, such as ”Naima“  by saxophone great John Coltrane, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles, “My Cherie Amour” by Stevie Wonder, Latin-tinged “Fingerlero” by Ronnie Foster and “Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones.

The accomplished Benson skyrocketed to fame, using vocal techniques. Considered one of the most successful jazz guitarists, he started his first group in New York in 1965, and achieved more success than any of his ‘comrades’ at the time. In 1967, Benson was invited by jazz legend Miles Davis to play with him before the jazz fusion explosion. They recorded the great hit album, Miles In The Sky. Since then, Benson has become one of America’s most successful and accomplished guitarists.

He recorded the monster hit album Breezin’ in 1976, which has sold more than 10 million copies. Benson never limited himself to jazz music, but expanded to include pop and R&B throughout his 50-year career, during which he recorded more than 35 albums and won 10 Grammy Awards.

Benson has developed a style that appeals to a broad mainstream audience. My colleague Russ Davis recently talked with Benson about his new album Guitar Man, two other new releases and his audience. Benson explained why he thinks a lot of people thought of him more as a vocalist than an instrumentalist.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Guitar Man was recorded with the collaboration of a solid team of jazz icons, including Joe Sample, keyboardist and musical director David Garfield, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Harvey Mason.

I profiled George Benson twice in the mid 1990s on my Jazz Club USA show. He told me then that he believes it’s the audience that gives a musician an identity and a stature in the world. Benson’s music follows my Arabic narration.  You will also enjoy songs by Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington in the “Down Memory Lane” segment of the show.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Brilliant improviser and vibrant entertainer George Benson says continuous practice is the key to mastering an instrument. Once in control, it’s easy to communicate with any other musician in any country, he advises. Benson has collaborated with many other acclaimed vocalists, including Pavarotti, Diana Krall and Erykah Badu.

For more on jazz music, listen to VOA’s Jazz America