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Staying 'Jersey Fresh' with John Pizzarelli · Jersey Arts Podcast

• 0:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This is Gina Marie Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts podcast.
• 0:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I have to say, I love talking to fellow radio hosts.
• 0:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh wait, I'm a podcast host.
• 0:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Are the two comparable?
• 0:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Alright, well while I have a crisis of identity, I'll let you guys decide.
• 0:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But my point is, radio hosts tend to know how to gab with the best of them.
• 0:25
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And John Pizzarelli is no exception.
• 0:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Today's guest is the charming and personable host of Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli.
• 0:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But that's not all he's known for.
• 0:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Borrowing from his website's biography, I can say that he is a guitarist and singer who has been hailed by the Boston Globe for reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and repopularizing jazz.
• 0:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He's been established as one of the prime contemporary interpreters of the Great American Songbook, and has even expanded that repertoire by including the music of Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Antonio Carlos Javim, and the Beatles.
• 1:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: In addition to being a band leader and solo performer, Pizzarelli has been a special guest on recordings for major pop names such as Natalie Cole, Kristen Chenowitz, Tom Wopat, Ricky Lee Jones, and Dave Van Ronck.
• 1:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: As well as leading jazz artists such as Rosemary Clooney, Ruby Braff, Johnny Frigo, Buddy DeFranco, Harry Allen, and of course, his father, Bucky Pizzarelli.
• 1:22
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He won a Grammy Award in the best traditional pop vocal album category as co-producer of James Taylor's American Standard in 2021.
• 1:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: He's also performed on America's most popular national television shows such as The Tonight Show, starring Jimmy Fallon, Conan, and great performances, as well as the talk shows of Jay Leno, David Letterman, Regis Bilbin, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• 1:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And my favorite fun fact, and perhaps the wonder of it all, is that he was the singer in the popular Foxwoods casino commercials for just under a decade.
• 1:52
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And this October, he will be one of the featured headliners at the Jazz at the Point Festival, hosted by the South Jersey Jazz Society.
• 2:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Stay tuned to drop in on one of my most relaxed conversations with the delightful John Pizzarelli.
• 2:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So first, I was just talking to uh Skye about this, though the weather is absolutely insane here.
• 2:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But you're in Florida, so I'm hoping that it's nicer there for you.
• 2:17
  John Pizzarelli: No, yeah, I'm I'm playing down here in Orlando.
• 2:20
  John Pizzarelli: So uh it's uh hot and humid and ugly, but I know it's raining up north, but I'm coming home tomorrow, so uh I'm actually looking forward to the rain, and uh it's a nice time of year when you can put a sweater on.
• 2:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I mean, I guess a lot of people do enjoy the fall.
• 2:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I like the summer, and I feel like Jersey just hasn't had enough summer lately.
• 2:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like there's so many gray skies, and I'm missing it.
• 2:44
  John Pizzarelli: Yeah, and it you know, I remember as a kid the the there weren't enough shore days in the uh summer.
• 2:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Were you sorry, that was that came out wrong.
• 2:56
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Do you live in New York now or New Jersey?
• 2:59
  John Pizzarelli: I live in New York.
• 2:59
  John Pizzarelli: I I've been in the city for 30 years.
• 3:01
  John Pizzarelli: My parents, though, uh were in uh Saddle River for all well for most of their married life, and that my mother was uh from Waldwick and my father from Patterson.
• 3:13
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love it.
• 3:14
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Jersey families.
• 3:16
  John Pizzarelli: Yes, and uh, you know, I I have fond memories of uh of growing up in New Jersey.
• 3:21
  John Pizzarelli: It was it was it was quite a wonderful time in the in the 70s and 80s to be around there.
• 3:26
  John Pizzarelli: It was just there were a lot of great places to work.
• 3:29
  John Pizzarelli: I met a lot of great people who are still friends of mine today.
• 3:32
  John Pizzarelli: And I went to a day camp and uh called Knights Day Camp in Upper Saddle River that is uh closed uh 40 years ago, and uh I still remember it like it was yesterday.
• 3:45
  John Pizzarelli: I had so much fun there.
• 3:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Oh my gosh, that's awesome! I was gonna ask you, did you have a favorite place to play?
• 3:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But I meant music, although the summer camp is awesome.
• 3:54
  John Pizzarelli: Summer camp was great.
• 3:55
  John Pizzarelli: Uh I used to play at a place called Nobody's Inn in Mawa, New Jersey.
• 3:59
  John Pizzarelli: I did Tuesdays and Sundays there uh for uh oh at least 20 years.
• 4:05
  John Pizzarelli: And it was like a it was like home base, and it was there, it was there was a familial aspect to it because I just knew everybody who worked there, and uh I worked there with um my rock band sometimes on the weekends, and then I did my solo act there, well, solo act where I would just play standards.
• 4:23
  John Pizzarelli: I did Sunday night dinners six to nine.
• 4:26
  John Pizzarelli: I did Tuesdays like nine to one, and then I played a place in um I a dear friend of mine named Grover Kemble, who was a sort of a New Jersey fixture.
• 4:35
  John Pizzarelli: Uh, we worked together in New Brunswick at a place called Ryan's and uh R-H-Y-A-N-S.
• 4:43
  John Pizzarelli: And we play in the window.
• 4:45
  John Pizzarelli: It was on George Street, and you'd play in the window, and and there'd be a bunch of people and a bar along the side.
• 4:51
  John Pizzarelli: I think Jim Gandalfini might have been a bartender when I was there.
• 4:56
  John Pizzarelli: And uh uh you looked up, and then there was a staircase, and then there was even an upstairs people would look down at you, and uh, we had a lot of fun there.
• 5:05
  John Pizzarelli: Grover and I would do one night, then my band would do one night, and Grover's band did one night.
• 5:10
  John Pizzarelli: We uh we sort of owned that place for a while, so there were a lot of it was a there was a really fun new uh music scene.
• 5:16
  John Pizzarelli: And as I look at my friends uh were out there, there's still places where there's live music, and it's really sort of fun to see bands still out there playing Alman Brothers.
• 5:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Absolutely.
• 5:28
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: It's so funny that you bring up New Brunswick because I'm I'm a Ruckers girl, so of course I know George Street, but I've never heard James Gandalfini referred to as Jim Gandalfini, so that just gave me some some joy right there.
• 5:41
  John Pizzarelli: Yeah, it was funny because there was and there was a famous actor uh uh named Roger Bart who uh also uh worked at the bar.
• 5:50
  John Pizzarelli: And so I think it was one of those things where we didn't realize we were we were all working in the same place.
• 5:56
  John Pizzarelli: And I know Mario Batali worked at stuff your face around the corner, and uh it was a wild time.
• 6:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I did not know that, so I'm learning a lot today.
• 6:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I did know that Roger Bart and James Gandalvini had both gone to Mason Gross.
• 6:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I didn't realize that they may have been contemporaries, I guess.
• 6:13
  John Pizzarelli: Yeah, they may they may have worked together.
• 6:14
  John Pizzarelli: I know Roger, Roger did uh Tommy with my wife on Broadway uh in the early 90s, and uh they're they're quite good friends still to this day.
• 6:24
  John Pizzarelli: So uh that's how we I was like, wait, wait a second, you worked at Ryan's while I was at Ryan's, you know, one of those kind of things.
• 6:30
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, that's so cool.
• 6:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 6:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love when like it's six degrees of separation, etc.
• 6:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yeah, it's crazy, yeah.
• 6:36
  John Pizzarelli: And and the people who still say, Oh, I was at Ryan's when you were there, and they remember the nutty things that we did, and and uh the nobody's in people still find me out in the world and say, you know, I was there every Tuesday night, and it was really uh fun.
• 6:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 6:51
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that.
• 6:52
  John Pizzarelli: I I actually I even found the other day uh I I played the last night that it was nobody's in, or the last week.
• 6:59
  John Pizzarelli: I did I went back and did a Tuesday night, and Les Paul came in and sat right in front of me.
• 7:04
  John Pizzarelli: He came from his house in Mawa, and I found the pictures a picture of Les Paul looking up at me while I'm playing.
• 7:10
  John Pizzarelli: So that was uh uh you know crazy.
• 7:12
  John Pizzarelli: That kind of stuff happened all the time.
• 7:15
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Wow, that is amazing.
• 7:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Did you say you just found that photo?
• 7:19
  John Pizzarelli: Uh yeah, I found the photo.
• 7:20
  John Pizzarelli: I had it in yeah, it was one of those things where you know I'm old, so I was like looking in a file and I was like, Oh, I had nothing to do.
• 7:26
  John Pizzarelli: I was on a gig and you know, I had the whole day off, and I was just going through my photos, and I was like, Oh, there's the Les Paul photo is crazy.
• 7:34
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's so cool.
• 7:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love I love those stories.
• 7:36
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I wanted to ask you because you you mentioned it very briefly, that you had been in a rock band when you were younger initially, but I think I had heard you say in in previous interviews that it was Nat King Cole that kind of turned you back to jazz.
• 7:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So do you mind if I ask you how you feel about Nat today?
• 7:54
  John Pizzarelli: Oh, yeah.
• 7:54
  John Pizzarelli: Well, that was the thing is that um uh I started working uh with a buddy of mine.
• 8:03
  John Pizzarelli: Uh we went to Don Bosco together, and he lived in Mawa, and I lived in Saddle River.
• 8:08
  John Pizzarelli: And then when I came back from college, I did three semesters in Tampa, the University of Tampa, because they accepted me.
• 8:16
  John Pizzarelli: And I came home and we went to William Patterson and we met on the campus together.
• 8:21
  John Pizzarelli: And he said, Hey, uh, I got a gig for us on uh uh Monday nights in a little Italian restaurant in Tapan, New York, and we would play standards, and that's where I started to learn a lot of standards, and I learned a lot of standards working with my father.
• 8:35
  John Pizzarelli: But it was this guy's sister who introduced me to a record by a guy from uh Clifton or Montclair.
• 8:43
  John Pizzarelli: His name was Frank Weber, and he made a record of Straighten Up and Fly Right, and which was a big Nat Cole hit.
• 8:50
  John Pizzarelli: And so I learned it.
• 8:52
  John Pizzarelli: The long the long story short, I learned that song and then got all the Nat Cole records were re-released right at that time, the trio records, and that was life-changing because I didn't know any songs that weren't uh you know connected to Sinatra or Tony Bennett or uh singers that I couldn't emulate in a sense.
• 9:16
  John Pizzarelli: Uh, but the Nat Cole thing had jazz and it had a sense of humor and it and um and vocally for me it was an easy place to start singing Route 66 and all that.
• 9:27
  John Pizzarelli: So uh my father would joke, he said, You're the only guy who plays jazz uh to support his rock and roll habit because I I would make money with my father working all these great gigs and then still sneak out on, well, not sneak out, but I I had a little rock band that I loved playing in, and I'd go to you know, nobody's in, and I I had this idea that maybe I was gonna be a singer-songwriter like James Taylor or Jackson Brown or somebody like that.
• 9:55
  John Pizzarelli: So that's where all the New Jersey club dates were those kind of things.
• 9:59
  John Pizzarelli: And then my father'd say, You want to make some money?
• 10:01
  John Pizzarelli: I'll take you to a real gig.
• 10:03
  John Pizzarelli: And you know, I'd and then I started to actually make records singing Nat Cole songs.
• 10:08
  John Pizzarelli: I actually made a couple of albums when uh in 83, 85, and 87.
• 10:14
  John Pizzarelli: And uh, so I was cultivating this uh jazz career.
• 10:19
  John Pizzarelli: I just sort of fell into it, you know, it was crazy.
• 10:21
  John Pizzarelli: And then I when I when I realized I was I was living by myself in a in a little guard department in Ramsey, that I was like, I guess I'm making a living doing this, you know, it was crazy.
• 10:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Speaking of your dad, I mean, he himself was a renowned jazz guitarist, but I'm I'm wondering if you you ventured into rock because you didn't want to be like your dad at first, or maybe you were trying to do something on your own.
• 10:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I don't know.
• 10:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I guess I'm wondering like if you felt that you needed to follow in his footsteps eventually.
• 10:50
  John Pizzarelli: No, you know, I just loved the Beatles when I was a kid.
• 10:52
  John Pizzarelli: Uh my sisters had all the Beatles records, and we would listen to them, and we liked watching the movies, help and Hard Days Night, and thought, wow, this is really cool.
• 11:01
  John Pizzarelli: And that was a way, and my buddy, uh, who I went to grammar school with in high school, his name was Steve Lafayoska, and he was he was like, he liked playing the guitar, but he didn't have any equipment.
• 11:13
  John Pizzarelli: And he was like, Well, you got amps and guitars in your house.
• 11:16
  John Pizzarelli: Let's start a band.
• 11:17
  John Pizzarelli: You got all the stuff.
• 11:18
  John Pizzarelli: You know, my father had the amps and the guitars, and uh, it was just a way to play dances and make a little money.
• 11:25
  John Pizzarelli: And and there wasn't, and my father was always like, he loved the fact that we were working, you know, that we were get had a band and all, you know, it was too loud for him, and he maybe didn't get some of the music, but he was always like, Oh, how'd your gig go?
• 11:38
  John Pizzarelli: Oh, your gig was good, oh, that's great, you know, and and it was just, I mean, honestly, it was sort of sheer luck that I I ended up in the family business, quote unquote, playing jazz.
• 11:48
  John Pizzarelli: And uh uh, and my father was always just like, Well, if you're you're making a living playing music was a good thing.
• 11:55
  John Pizzarelli: So he would never said, you know, do this.
• 11:58
  John Pizzarelli: We were always out there trying, and whatever was stuck to the wall, we went in that direction, you know.
• 12:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I I mean, obviously it worked out well for you, so that's good.
• 12:08
  John Pizzarelli: I was I was very pleased with the way it turned out.
• 12:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Uh, you know, I guess I'll ask you since we're we're on that train of thought, I ask this of every professional musician that I speak to.
• 12:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: What is your advice for young aspiring artists who want to go pro?
• 12:25
  John Pizzarelli: That's a very good question.
• 12:26
  John Pizzarelli: You know, as a matter of fact, I'm playing down here.
• 12:28
  John Pizzarelli: I have I've had a number of uh young piano players now over the past uh 10 years, who have been, you know, literally just out of college.
• 12:41
  John Pizzarelli: And you know, my feeling to my saying to them was I I've never been one to like say, you gotta do it this way or you gotta do it that way.
• 12:50
  John Pizzarelli: I mean, I was always like, for me, learn the songs, uh, have a repertoire so that you know, if I say, Do you know that song?
• 12:58
  John Pizzarelli: You say, Yeah, I know that song.
• 12:59
  John Pizzarelli: I learned all these songs.
• 13:00
  John Pizzarelli: I learned a lot of them when I was with my father and on bandstands with his contemporaries.
• 13:06
  John Pizzarelli: And so, you know, find a place where you can where you can uh work on that part of it.
• 13:12
  John Pizzarelli: Because I think that was a big thing that I did too, was I sat in these little clubs in New Jersey, and sometimes uh more often than not, people didn't listen.
• 13:22
  John Pizzarelli: But I you always knew there was one listener.
• 13:24
  John Pizzarelli: I realized that too.
• 13:25
  John Pizzarelli: That was one of those things when you thought, eh, I'm gonna relax, I'm gonna have a beer before I go back for the next set, and then I'd be on the next set, and I'd there'd be someone, and you'd go, Oh, I shouldn't have had that beer.
• 13:37
  John Pizzarelli: I shouldn't be really thinking about doing this.
• 13:39
  John Pizzarelli: And it was all those little lessons that I learned from playing those gigs.
• 13:44
  John Pizzarelli: And I think those kinds of gigs, no matter what they pay, are instrumental in helping you get uh to somewhere, to a goal.
• 13:53
  John Pizzarelli: You know, it might not just be um uh my group right off the bat, which is a successful band, but it might just be, you know, you just you make your way to when the when the phone rings and it's that somebody, you know, that's the thing that's happened to me in in these past 15 years.
• 14:11
  John Pizzarelli: You know, James Taylor calls me on the phone and you're like, oh, I can do that, sure.
• 14:17
  John Pizzarelli: You know, I mean, those are the things you worked and practiced for is when Paul McCartney calls up and says, We want you to play rhythm guitar on this record, and you're like, Yeah, I can do that.
• 14:26
  John Pizzarelli: You know, I've I got to work with uh Michael McDonald at the Carlisle Hotel, and that was a big deal, you know.
• 14:33
  John Pizzarelli: And then I was like, I can do that, and I I can show him what I can do, so make the gig easier for him.
• 14:40
  John Pizzarelli: And all those hours spent in all those clubs running around George Street and and Franklin Turnpike were were uh instrumental in making uh you know and guiding the way that to what I wanted to do.
• 14:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So have a repertoire, be ready.
• 14:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I think that's excellent.
• 14:59
  John Pizzarelli: Yeah, I don't know.
• 14:59
  John Pizzarelli: I I don't know if I answered the question, but that's the thing.
• 15:02
  John Pizzarelli: Yeah, practice.
• 15:02
  John Pizzarelli: You did make sure you're ready.
• 15:04
  John Pizzarelli: So when somebody calls you for the gig, you're ready to you you have the you have a repertoire, or if there's somebody you want to work with, make sure you're really familiar with their material.
• 15:13
  John Pizzarelli: I know there's the Pat Mathaney's story was he loved Gary Burton's and he learned all of Gary Burton's songs and said, I want to sit in.
• 15:20
  John Pizzarelli: And they said, Well, you know, we do all original music.
• 15:22
  John Pizzarelli: And I well, I know all the music.
• 15:24
  John Pizzarelli: And and he got in the band, you know, and those kinds of things uh I look for in a piano player when, you know, or a bass player, it's like, yeah, I know, I know your stuff.
• 15:33
  John Pizzarelli: Let's go.
• 15:34
  John Pizzarelli: And that's you know, that's a big part of of getting out there and and uh the first part of you know the professional relationship you hope to have in your career.
• 15:46
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, you were certainly ready when Paul McCartney called you.
• 15:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So I I need to ask you, as a fan of the Beatles growing up, what what did that mean to you when Paul McCartney wants to work with you?
• 15:57
  John Pizzarelli: Oh, that was that was crazy.
• 15:58
  John Pizzarelli: I mean, uh I was very lucky because I had established myself uh as a uh you know a rhythm guitar player or a jazz guitarist, the type that they wanted for that record.
• 16:10
  John Pizzarelli: So when Tommy La Puma, the the producer of that record, who had done breezing with George Benson and he did all the Diana Karall records, he did Michael Franks, all these great records.
• 16:20
  John Pizzarelli: And when he called me, said, I need you to do this, I was like, Yeah, I can do that.
• 16:24
  John Pizzarelli: And um it was quite wonderful.
• 16:27
  John Pizzarelli: I mean, to to be in the room with this guy who, when I was six, I was holding a cardboard guitar in front of the uh turntable, faking, you know, can't buy me love.
• 16:38
  John Pizzarelli: And uh to sit in a room with him and watch him work was quite wonderful, magical, you know, just and go, oh, I know why this guy's so famous, because he knows what he wants and he knows how to do it.
• 16:51
  John Pizzarelli: And uh and he was and the best part was he was uh just genuinely terrific person, which I was so like so happy to be able to say that.
• 17:02
  John Pizzarelli: I suppose, like, I really can't talk about Paul McCartney, you know.
• 17:05
  John Pizzarelli: He was just great, and I got you know, got to meet a lot of people on that date too, Joe Walsh and uh just to be around this whole amazing group of people uh making music.
• 17:17
  John Pizzarelli: That was you know, that was a room I was really fortunate to be in.
• 17:22
  John Pizzarelli: And the same thing with Taylor when he called up and said, I want to do two guitars and do standard songs, and I need you to help me do that.
• 17:28
  John Pizzarelli: I was like, Well, I spent a lot of time learning your songs, so let's go do this, you know.
• 17:34
  John Pizzarelli: And it was just uh it's uh it was very it's amazing what where the guitar has brung me.
• 17:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Speaking of being a fan of someone and eventually getting to work with them, can I tell you a ridiculous story and hopefully it won't make you too uncomfortable?
• 17:49
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: No, don't so when I was growing up, you were the Foxwoods guy.
• 17:55
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I may have been in love with you for as like a 12-year-old, and I really wanted to go to Foxwoods.
• 18:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: My mother was like, Gina, you're not going to a casino.
• 18:06
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You don't need to be at a casino.
• 18:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And then I was like, But mom, he told me to meet him at Foxwoods.
• 18:13
  John Pizzarelli: He's like, he was not talking to you.
• 18:15
  John Pizzarelli: No, that's very sweet because it was uh that was another thing that just fell in my lap.
• 18:21
  John Pizzarelli: I went to uh do the session, and uh Hansibia had written this great arrangement.
• 18:27
  John Pizzarelli: He said, No, you gotta sing it.
• 18:29
  John Pizzarelli: I was like, When I gotta sing this thing, yeah, just sing it.
• 18:31
  John Pizzarelli: And the the director of the commercial was there and said, You should be in this commercial.
• 18:37
  John Pizzarelli: And I was like, Yeah, I should be in this commercial.
• 18:39
  John Pizzarelli: I didn't even think it was anything.
• 18:41
  John Pizzarelli: And literally by the end of the day, there were the plans to shoot the commercial, and it was uh it was quite a uh remarkable thing, ran for about seven or eight years.
• 18:51
  John Pizzarelli: Everybody saw it and uh it was very good to me.
• 18:53
  John Pizzarelli: So that's uh I'm I'm fine with that.
• 18:55
  John Pizzarelli: Thank you very much.
• 18:57
  John Pizzarelli: Very soon.
• 18:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Of course.
• 18:58
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm glad I didn't make it too awkward.
• 19:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: We'll move on from that, though.
• 19:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I've totally moved on, it's okay.
• 19:03
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, all right, let's let's actually talk about where you're gonna be in Jersey.
• 19:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: You're gonna be a featured headliner at the Jersey Fresh Jazz at the Point Festival.
• 19:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So we were talking about your you know previous experiences in New Jersey.
• 19:16
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So is there anything you're looking forward to with this upcoming performance?
• 19:20
  John Pizzarelli: I always like the drive down the parkway.
• 19:22
  John Pizzarelli: It's one of my favorite things.
• 19:24
  John Pizzarelli: Making my way doing that uh is is uh it brings back a lot of memories for me to get to go down that way.
• 19:33
  John Pizzarelli: And uh uh I get I I get stupidly nostalgic for the signs and all the and the the stops and the things, and and the guys in the group, if I bring anybody with me, if you know sometimes we'll share, you know, I'll drive and piano player will come with me, Isaiah or uh or the guys together.
• 19:53
  John Pizzarelli: And uh I just say, Well, you know, that exit, and then you know, I used to go and then over there was another thing, and then down that place.
• 20:01
  John Pizzarelli: And uh even my wife sort of fed up with it now.
• 20:04
  John Pizzarelli: You know, when I when we drive, if I go on Route 17 or Route 4, and I just start to and she goes, I understand this has to happen every time we do this.
• 20:13
  John Pizzarelli: And I just say, Well, that's where I bought the Nat Cole record.
• 20:17
  John Pizzarelli: It was a Sam Goodies in there, you know, or the down the parkway, and you you know where exit 98 was took us to Jenkinson's at Point Pleasant, and that was a big deal, you know.
• 20:27
  John Pizzarelli: So I I am uh, you know, I I live in New York, but New Jersey's in my blood.
• 20:33
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love that, and I love the nostalgia.
• 20:35
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For me, I I suffer from highway hypnosis, so I could never say that I enjoy driving down the parkway because there have been times where I have almost fallen asleep, and that's very bad.
• 20:44
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For anybody listening, don't do that.
• 20:46
  John Pizzarelli: You know, it's funny.
• 20:47
  John Pizzarelli: I used to do that.
• 20:48
  John Pizzarelli: Um, I when I I would work at night's day camp that one summer, 84 and 85, and uh, you know, I'd work from nine to four and go home and shower, and then uh, you know, I'd had to get in the car at six.
• 21:02
  John Pizzarelli: It was always seemed like it was a longer drive, but I remember going those kinds of things and driving home at night.
• 21:08
  John Pizzarelli: And sometimes I'd pull off at Madison Hill.
• 21:10
  John Pizzarelli: So I would stop the car and just I'd fall asleep for a second.
• 21:14
  John Pizzarelli: It was it was amazing, and now I'm I'm so happy to be on the road, and you know, I'm like uh and uh it's much more exciting.
• 21:22
  John Pizzarelli: I don't know why it keeps me awake now, but uh when it was younger and I was falling, I would be drowsy in a lot of those little areas, but it is uh it's just a fun ride for me now.
• 21:32
  John Pizzarelli: I just sort of I love the I just there's the the highlights of the signs and certain exits that lead to stories that drive everyone crazy.
• 21:41
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Well, I'm glad it's fun for you now because it's also much safer that way.
• 21:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Yes, behind the wheel.
• 21:48
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, you mentioned before that your your wife is also a performer, and I mean, obviously you've kind of surrounded yourself by family who is uh in the musical industry.
• 21:57
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I'm just as someone who doesn't really have that niche within my family who's in the arts, I'm wondering what's that like?
• 22:05
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Like you just get to go home and enjoy your career at home as well.
• 22:09
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I I didn't phrase that correctly, but do you know what I'm trying to get at?
• 22:13
  John Pizzarelli: I I totally know what you mean.
• 22:14
  John Pizzarelli: And I I mean it was um there were certain things about working with Bucky.
• 22:18
  John Pizzarelli: Well, I call him Bucky, my dad, that uh, you know, we were we sort of my father used to always say, You can't beat blood.
• 22:27
  John Pizzarelli: He was always, you know, it's like when we and we would we were sort of mean about it too.
• 22:32
  John Pizzarelli: We'd get in the car and we'd go, Yeah, we know what we're doing tonight, you know, let's go get him, you know.
• 22:36
  John Pizzarelli: And we were always uh we had spent so many times, so many hours in clubs where we would play for four hours or here, or we'd play a three-hour gig there.
• 22:46
  John Pizzarelli: And so then when we had to play a concert somewhere, we had an easy hour of material, and that kind of thing was always got us energized, you know.
• 22:56
  John Pizzarelli: And when Jessica and I like we were just sitting together a couple of weeks ago at our the what we call the cabin that Foxwood's uh built, uh, and we were just talking about stuff, and we came, you know, and and just through this little conversation, as we're now on in uh our radio show's on in Newark.
• 23:14
  John Pizzarelli: Uh Radio Deluxe is on WBGO on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, uh radio show we've had forever for 20 years.
• 23:22
  John Pizzarelli: And the you know, just sitting together and talking about what we're gonna do for a gig at the Carlisle, and all of a sudden we're like, oh, there's the theme and here's the thing.
• 23:30
  John Pizzarelli: And we uh and we have the same kind of relationship that way.
• 23:34
  John Pizzarelli: It's like, I think we can do this, this, yeah.
• 23:36
  John Pizzarelli: And we have a great uh it's it's it's a wonderful way to uh to be to have that in the in-house kind of sensibility.
• 23:47
  John Pizzarelli: Even if it's I'm just going to do something and I'll say, What do you think I should do?
• 23:51
  John Pizzarelli: We were looking at record covers this morning, and well, maybe try this.
• 23:54
  John Pizzarelli: That looks good.
• 23:55
  John Pizzarelli: You know, you have somebody to bounce it off of who has um a little has a similar idea to what uh you're thinking, you know, and we've we've had that for almost 30 years, so it's pretty good.
• 24:08
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That really is the coolest thing I've ever heard.
• 24:10
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And I I always talk to these couples who work in the same industry together, and I envy you a little bit, a little bit.
• 24:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But who knows?
• 24:19
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Maybe maybe one day I'll meet someone who also works in the arts.
• 24:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Uh who knows?
• 24:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That's it.
• 24:26
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: That said, I did want to ask before we end, sure.
• 24:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Stage and screen um was is that your latest album?
• 24:34
  John Pizzarelli: Yeah, that's the one that's out right now.
• 24:36
  John Pizzarelli: Yeah.
• 24:37
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Was that at all inspired by I mean, your wife performs on Broadway, right?
• 24:42
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: So are you also a Broadway fan, or was that something that you fell in love with through your wife?
• 24:48
  John Pizzarelli: Well, the funny thing about Stage and Screen is that when the pandemic hit, I had to do, I mean, we had we had literally we were cut off from uh making a living.
• 25:00
  John Pizzarelli: And so we were in this cabin and we were sort of looking at each other, going, what are we gonna do now?
• 25:07
  John Pizzarelli: And so um I was able now, because of all this, uh, to do these live Facebook shows.
• 25:15
  John Pizzarelli: And I would say at the beginning of the week, I still do them actually.
• 25:19
  John Pizzarelli: It's been five years, and I at the beginning of the week, I'll post on Facebook.
• 25:23
  John Pizzarelli: I'm gonna do my show on my Facebook page, uh, leave your requests.
• 25:28
  John Pizzarelli: And I would start to gather requests and a lot of the songs from stage and screen because of Jessica's obviously her stage experience and uh me liking uh songs and then looking at all these requests and going, this one time after time comes up a lot.
• 25:46
  John Pizzarelli: As time goes by comes up a lot.
• 25:48
  John Pizzarelli: Uh and I started to put together songs that um and I realized the theme was stage and screen.
• 25:56
  John Pizzarelli: And I I uh I needed to make a record when I was gonna go back out on the road, and that's how this theme arrived.
• 26:02
  John Pizzarelli: And it made it for uh it made it easy for us.
• 26:05
  John Pizzarelli: It worked out where very well.
• 26:07
  John Pizzarelli: And Jessica, of course, uh uh one of her friends, Jason Robert Brown, wrote the second song, uh I Love Betsy on the record.
• 26:14
  John Pizzarelli: So we we did get some of our friends' uh music involved in it too.
• 26:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I love it.
• 26:20
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I had to bring it up as a fan of stage and screen myself.
• 26:23
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I just needed to ask about that.
• 26:25
  John Pizzarelli: You can ask anything you want.
• 26:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thank you, thank you.
• 26:29
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Um, I think those actually might have been all of my questions, but is there anything that I didn't ask that we should be promoting?
• 26:36
  John Pizzarelli: No, I think they're all in there.
• 26:37
  John Pizzarelli: I mean, we I've I've promoted the radio show, which airs uh Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays 8 to 12 on WBGO.
• 26:45
  John Pizzarelli: That's uh Jessica and I, our show called Radio Deluxe.
• 26:48
  John Pizzarelli: Stage and Screen's been out for a while.
• 26:50
  John Pizzarelli: Next year we have an album called Dear Mr.
• 26:52
  John Pizzarelli: Bennett, which uh celebrates uh the music of Tony Bennett.
• 26:56
  John Pizzarelli: So that'll be out in the beginning of the year, uh in the beginning of March.
• 27:00
  John Pizzarelli: Uh we were gonna be at the Carlisle, Jessica and I, for two weeks in November.
• 27:05
  John Pizzarelli: And I'm always excited to play in New Jersey.
• 27:08
  John Pizzarelli: So that's a that's a it's a big deal.
• 27:09
  John Pizzarelli: I'm glad you took the time to help me promote it.
• 27:11
  John Pizzarelli: I'm looking forward to uh uh it's always fun to go down the parkway and play a gig, uh play some gigs, so it'll be fun.
• 27:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Now that you've had some insight into my teenage crushes, you might understand why this was such an exciting interview for me.
• 27:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Pizzerelli will perform on October 17th at 7 p.m.
• 27:31
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: in Summers Point.
• 27:32
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: But the full festival runs October 16th through the 18th, featuring a number of wonderful performers.
• 27:38
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: For tickets and more information about the festival, be sure to visit southjersey jazz.org slash events.
• 27:45
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you'd like to learn more about John Pizzarelli, you can visit johnpizzarelli.com.
• 27:50
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends.
• 27:53
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at JerseyArts.com.
• 28:00
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The JerseyArts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986.
• 28:07
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.
• 28:12
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez.
• 28:17
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez.
• 28:21
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: And my thanks, of course, to John Pizzarelli for speaking with me today.
• 28:24
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast.
• 28:27
  Gina Marie Rodriguez: Thanks for listening.