1. Let There Be Love
2. I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket
3. These Foolish Things
4. All I Saw Was You
5. Everything I Have Is Yours
6. Stompin' At The Savoy
7. Follow
8. Our Little Secret
9. You'll Never Know
10. I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)
11. Our Love Rolls On
12. Just One More Chance
13. Lucky Charm
14. Da Vinci's Eyes
15. What Is There To Say
John Pizzarelli - Guitar,
vocals
Pat Kennedy - Piano
Martin Pizzarelli - Bass
Tony Tedesco - Brushes on
book
Harry Allen - Tenor sax (tracks
4, 5)
Ken Peplowski - Clarinet
(track 6)
Bucky Pizzarelli - Guitar
(tracks 10, 12)
Dominic Cortese - Accordion
(track 14)
Jesse Levy - Cello (track
14)
I admire John Pizzarelli
as a great guitarist and a very pleasant singer.
But I have mixed feelings about this album,
which match the mixture of responses on the
Amazon website, which range from "A delightful
album!" and "I love it" to "This is jazz lite,
run-of-the-mill cocktail lounge fare".
The first problem for me
is that John Pizzarelli doesn't play enoiugh
guitar on this CD. He delivers a few solos
but nowhere near as spectacularly as we know
he can play - for example, on the album John
Pizzarelli Trio: Live at Birdland (Telarc)
or Bucky Pizzarelli with John Pizzarelli:
Nirvana (Laserlight). His vocals are agreeable
enough but hardly his strongest point. The
other problem is that most of the songs are
gentle love-songs, which are in danger of
leading to blandness.
On the plus side, there are
chances to hear John's regular pianist, Ray
Kennedy: a real virtuoso whose playing is
always a delight. Sample the unexpected turns
he takes in his solo on Stompin' at the
Savoy, one of the livelier tracks on the
album, which also contains some mercurial
clarinet from Ken Peplowski.
Guests like Peplowski brighten
up some tracks - for example, Harry Allen
contributing a good solo to All I Saw Was
You. This is one of three songs that John
Pizzarelli had a hand in composing, and they
make a change from the jazz standards which
make up most of the programme. Other unhackneyed
songs include Grover Kemble's Follow
and Dave Frishberg's Our Love Rolls On.
But these cannot dispel the feeling that much
of the album is close to "smooth jazz". The
CD may be useful for late-night dancing (or
something) with your loved one, but the overall
feeling is bland rather than challenging.
Of course, that may be what John intended.
He says in the sleeve-notes: "I wanted this
album to feel personal and romantic, as if
you had happened upon us playing for friends
in our living room late at night". At least
the CD, originally released in 2000, is now
reissued in Telarc's "Discover Jazz" series,
so it should be obtainable at mid-price.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Telarc
CD 83518
