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Jersey Arts Podcast
The Jersey Arts Podcast presents in-depth, one-on-one conversations with the liveliest and most intriguing personalities in New Jersey’s arts scene. From the casts of hit shows to critically acclaimed film producers; from world-renowned poets to classically trained musicians; from groundbreaking dance visionaries to cutting-edge fine artists, our podcast connects you to what’s happening in your local arts community.
Jersey Arts Podcast
Staying 'Jersey Fresh' with John Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli is a guitarist and singer who has been hailed by the Boston Globe for “reinvigorating the Great American Songbook and re-popularizing jazz.” 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, Antônio Carlos Jobim and the Beatles.
In addition to being a bandleader and solo performer, Pizzarelli has been a special guest on recordings for major pop names such as Natalie Cole, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Wopat, Rickie Lee Jones and Dave Van Ronk, 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. He won a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category as co-producer of James Taylor’s American Standard in 2021.
He has 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 Philbin and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. And my favorite fun fact, the wonder of it all, is that he was the singer in the popular Foxwoods Casino commercials for just under a decade.
This October, he will be one of the featured headliners at the Jazz at the Point Festival hosted by the South Jersey Jazz Society.
Stay tuned to drop in on one of our most relaxed conversations with the delightful John Pizzarelli.
Thanks for listening!
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This is Gina Marie Rodriguez, and you're listening to the Jersey Arts podcast. I have to say, I love talking to fellow radio hosts. Oh wait, I'm a podcast host. Are the two comparable? Alright, well while I have a crisis of identity, I'll let you guys decide. But my point is, radio hosts tend to know how to gab with the best of them. And John Pizzarelli is no exception. Today's guest is the charming and personable host of Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli. But that's not all he's known for. 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. 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. 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. 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. He won a Grammy Award in the best traditional pop vocal album category as co-producer of James Taylor's American Standard in 2021. 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. 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. 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. Stay tuned to drop in on one of my most relaxed conversations with the delightful John Pizzarelli. So first, I was just talking to uh Skye about this, though the weather is absolutely insane here. But you're in Florida, so I'm hoping that it's nicer there for you.
John Pizzarelli:No, yeah, I'm I'm playing down here in Orlando. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:I mean, I guess a lot of people do enjoy the fall. I like the summer, and I feel like Jersey just hasn't had enough summer lately. Like there's so many gray skies, and I'm missing it.
John Pizzarelli:Yeah, and it you know, I remember as a kid the the there weren't enough shore days in the uh summer.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Yeah, absolutely. Were you sorry, that was that came out wrong. Do you live in New York now or New Jersey?
John Pizzarelli:I live in New York. I I've been in the city for 30 years. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:I love it. Jersey families.
John Pizzarelli:Yes, and uh, you know, I I have fond memories of uh of growing up in New Jersey. It was it was it was quite a wonderful time in the in the 70s and 80s to be around there. It was just there were a lot of great places to work. I met a lot of great people who are still friends of mine today. 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. I had so much fun there.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Oh my gosh, that's awesome! I was gonna ask you, did you have a favorite place to play? But I meant music, although the summer camp is awesome.
John Pizzarelli:Summer camp was great. Uh I used to play at a place called Nobody's Inn in Mawa, New Jersey. I did Tuesdays and Sundays there uh for uh oh at least 20 years. 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. I did Sunday night dinners six to nine. 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. Uh, we worked together in New Brunswick at a place called Ryan's and uh R-H-Y-A-N-S. And we play in the window. 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. I think Jim Gandalfini might have been a bartender when I was there. 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. Grover and I would do one night, then my band would do one night, and Grover's band did one night. 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. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Absolutely. 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.
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. 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. And I know Mario Batali worked at stuff your face around the corner, and uh it was a wild time.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:I did not know that, so I'm learning a lot today. I did know that Roger Bart and James Gandalvini had both gone to Mason Gross. I didn't realize that they may have been contemporaries, I guess.
John Pizzarelli:Yeah, they may they may have worked together. 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. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Yeah, that's so cool. I love that. I love when like it's six degrees of separation, etc. Yeah, it's crazy, yeah.
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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:I love that. I love that.
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. I did I went back and did a Tuesday night, and Les Paul came in and sat right in front of me. 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. So that was uh uh you know crazy. That kind of stuff happened all the time.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Wow, that is amazing. Did you say you just found that photo?
John Pizzarelli:Uh yeah, I found the photo. 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. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:That's so cool. I love I love those stories. 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. So do you mind if I ask you how you feel about Nat today?
John Pizzarelli:Oh, yeah. Well, that was the thing is that um uh I started working uh with a buddy of mine. Uh we went to Don Bosco together, and he lived in Mawa, and I lived in Saddle River. And then when I came back from college, I did three semesters in Tampa, the University of Tampa, because they accepted me. And I came home and we went to William Patterson and we met on the campus together. 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. But it was this guy's sister who introduced me to a record by a guy from uh Clifton or Montclair. His name was Frank Weber, and he made a record of Straighten Up and Fly Right, and which was a big Nat Cole hit. And so I learned it. 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. 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. 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. So that's where all the New Jersey club dates were those kind of things. And then my father'd say, You want to make some money? I'll take you to a real gig. And you know, I'd and then I started to actually make records singing Nat Cole songs. I actually made a couple of albums when uh in 83, 85, and 87. And uh, so I was cultivating this uh jazz career. I just sort of fell into it, you know, it was crazy. 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.
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. I don't know. I guess I'm wondering like if you felt that you needed to follow in his footsteps eventually.
John Pizzarelli:No, you know, I just loved the Beatles when I was a kid. 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. 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. And he was like, Well, you got amps and guitars in your house. Let's start a band. You got all the stuff. 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. 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? 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. 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. So he would never said, you know, do this. We were always out there trying, and whatever was stuck to the wall, we went in that direction, you know.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Well, I I mean, obviously it worked out well for you, so that's good.
John Pizzarelli:I was I was very pleased with the way it turned out.
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. What is your advice for young aspiring artists who want to go pro?
John Pizzarelli:That's a very good question. You know, as a matter of fact, I'm playing down here. 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. 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. 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? You say, Yeah, I know that song. I learned all these songs. I learned a lot of them when I was with my father and on bandstands with his contemporaries. And so, you know, find a place where you can where you can uh work on that part of it. 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. But I you always knew there was one listener. I realized that too. 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. I shouldn't be really thinking about doing this. And it was all those little lessons that I learned from playing those gigs. And I think those kinds of gigs, no matter what they pay, are instrumental in helping you get uh to somewhere, to a goal. 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. You know, James Taylor calls me on the phone and you're like, oh, I can do that, sure. 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. You know, I've I got to work with uh Michael McDonald at the Carlisle Hotel, and that was a big deal, you know. 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. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:So have a repertoire, be ready. I think that's excellent.
John Pizzarelli:Yeah, I don't know. I I don't know if I answered the question, but that's the thing. Yeah, practice. You did make sure you're ready. 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. 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. And they said, Well, you know, we do all original music. And I well, I know all the music. 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. Let's go. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Well, you were certainly ready when Paul McCartney called you. 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?
John Pizzarelli:Oh, that was that was crazy. 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. 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. And when he called me, said, I need you to do this, I was like, Yeah, I can do that. And um it was quite wonderful. 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. 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. 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. I suppose, like, I really can't talk about Paul McCartney, you know. 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. That was you know, that was a room I was really fortunate to be in. 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. I was like, Well, I spent a lot of time learning your songs, so let's go do this, you know. And it was just uh it's uh it was very it's amazing what where the guitar has brung me.
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? No, don't so when I was growing up, you were the Foxwoods guy. I may have been in love with you for as like a 12-year-old, and I really wanted to go to Foxwoods. My mother was like, Gina, you're not going to a casino. You don't need to be at a casino. And then I was like, But mom, he told me to meet him at Foxwoods.
John Pizzarelli:He's like, he was not talking to you. No, that's very sweet because it was uh that was another thing that just fell in my lap. I went to uh do the session, and uh Hansibia had written this great arrangement. He said, No, you gotta sing it. I was like, When I gotta sing this thing, yeah, just sing it. And the the director of the commercial was there and said, You should be in this commercial. And I was like, Yeah, I should be in this commercial. I didn't even think it was anything. 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. Everybody saw it and uh it was very good to me. So that's uh I'm I'm fine with that. Thank you very much. Very soon.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Of course. I'm glad I didn't make it too awkward. We'll move on from that, though. I've totally moved on, it's okay. Um, all right, let's let's actually talk about where you're gonna be in Jersey. You're gonna be a featured headliner at the Jersey Fresh Jazz at the Point Festival. So we were talking about your you know previous experiences in New Jersey. So is there anything you're looking forward to with this upcoming performance?
John Pizzarelli:I always like the drive down the parkway. It's one of my favorite things. 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. 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. 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. And uh even my wife sort of fed up with it now. 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. And I just say, Well, that's where I bought the Nat Cole record. 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. So I I am uh, you know, I I live in New York, but New Jersey's in my blood.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:I love that, and I love the nostalgia. 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. For anybody listening, don't do that.
John Pizzarelli:You know, it's funny. I used to do that. 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. It was always seemed like it was a longer drive, but I remember going those kinds of things and driving home at night. And sometimes I'd pull off at Madison Hill. So I would stop the car and just I'd fall asleep for a second. 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. 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. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Well, I'm glad it's fun for you now because it's also much safer that way. Yes, behind the wheel. 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. 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? Like you just get to go home and enjoy your career at home as well. I I didn't phrase that correctly, but do you know what I'm trying to get at?
John Pizzarelli:I I totally know what you mean. And I I mean it was um there were certain things about working with Bucky. 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. He was always, you know, it's like when we and we would we were sort of mean about it too. 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. 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. 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. 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. Uh Radio Deluxe is on WBGO on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, uh radio show we've had forever for 20 years. 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. And we uh and we have the same kind of relationship that way. It's like, I think we can do this, this, yeah. 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. Even if it's I'm just going to do something and I'll say, What do you think I should do? We were looking at record covers this morning, and well, maybe try this. That looks good. 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.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:That really is the coolest thing I've ever heard. 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. But who knows? Maybe maybe one day I'll meet someone who also works in the arts. Uh who knows? That's it. That said, I did want to ask before we end, sure. Stage and screen um was is that your latest album?
John Pizzarelli:Yeah, that's the one that's out right now. Yeah.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Was that at all inspired by I mean, your wife performs on Broadway, right? So are you also a Broadway fan, or was that something that you fell in love with through your wife?
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. And so we were in this cabin and we were sort of looking at each other, going, what are we gonna do now? And so um I was able now, because of all this, uh, to do these live Facebook shows. And I would say at the beginning of the week, I still do them actually. It's been five years, and I at the beginning of the week, I'll post on Facebook. I'm gonna do my show on my Facebook page, uh, leave your requests. 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. As time goes by comes up a lot. Uh and I started to put together songs that um and I realized the theme was stage and screen. 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. And it made it for uh it made it easy for us. It worked out where very well. And Jessica, of course, uh uh one of her friends, Jason Robert Brown, wrote the second song, uh I Love Betsy on the record. So we we did get some of our friends' uh music involved in it too.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:I love it. I had to bring it up as a fan of stage and screen myself. I just needed to ask about that.
John Pizzarelli:You can ask anything you want.
Gina Marie Rodriguez:Thank you, thank you. 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?
John Pizzarelli:No, I think they're all in there. I mean, we I've I've promoted the radio show, which airs uh Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays 8 to 12 on WBGO. That's uh Jessica and I, our show called Radio Deluxe. Stage and Screen's been out for a while. Next year we have an album called Dear Mr. Bennett, which uh celebrates uh the music of Tony Bennett. So that'll be out in the beginning of the year, uh in the beginning of March. Uh we were gonna be at the Carlisle, Jessica and I, for two weeks in November. And I'm always excited to play in New Jersey. So that's a that's a it's a big deal. I'm glad you took the time to help me promote it. 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.
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. Pizzerelli will perform on October 17th at 7 p.m. in Summers Point. But the full festival runs October 16th through the 18th, featuring a number of wonderful performers. For tickets and more information about the festival, be sure to visit southjersey jazz.org slash events. If you'd like to learn more about John Pizzarelli, you can visit johnpizzarelli.com. If you liked this episode, be sure to review, subscribe, and tell your friends. A transcript of this podcast, links relevant to the story, and more about the arts in New Jersey can be found at JerseyArts.com. The JerseyArts Podcast is presented by Art Pride New Jersey, advancing a state of creativity since 1986. The show was co-founded by and currently supported by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by me, Gina Marie Rodriguez. Executive producers are Jim Atkinson and Isaac Serna-Diez. And my thanks, of course, to John Pizzarelli for speaking with me today. I'm Gina Marie Rodriguez for the Jersey Arts Podcast. Thanks for listening.