John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey make beautiful music. They make beautiful music individually, as he plays electric guitar and sings in a soft, laid-back style and as she sings in a strong, confident manner that enables her to add dramatic lift to the lyrics.  They also make beautiful sounds when they sing the same song together, with their voices blending perfectly or, most often, when they sing duets on fascinating combinations of melodies in counterpoint.

In her solos, Molaskey brought tears to her own eyes in a sweet, touching “Small World” (Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim) and saluted Joni Mitchell in well-acted renditions of “Raised on Robbery” and “I Had a King.”

Pizzarelli scored on an effective reading of  “I Have Dreamed” (Rodgers & Hammerstein) and the couple combined for an up-tempo “Perdido” (Juan Tizol, with new lyrics by Pizzarelli and Molaskey) and a pleasant “Haven’t We Met?” (Kenny Rankin/Ruth Batchelor).

The duo was backed by a trio of extremely strong, potent musicians:  Larry Fuller on piano, Tony Tedesco on drums and Martin Pizzarelli (John’s brother) on bass.  Each of the musicians had outstanding moments individually, and they combined effectively on several numbers from John Pizzarelli’s latest CD saluting Duke Ellington— a medley of “Cotton Tail”  (Ellington/Harry Carney/Irving Mills) and “Rockin’ in Rhythm” (Ellington/Lorraine Feather), plus a haunting blending of the lyrics from “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore” with the melody of the more downbeat “East St. Louis Toodle-oo.”

The rest of the show consisted of a series of brilliant arrangements of songs from different composers blended together in seamless counterpoint. For example, Pizzarelli played guitar and sang Irving Berlin’s “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing,” while she countered with “Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast” (Jerome Leshay/Bobby Troup), with the strains of “There may be trouble ahead” (from Berlin’s “Let’s Face the Music and Dance”) tossed in.

Pizzrarelli also sang George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” while Molaskey did an evocative “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (Charles Fox/Norman Gimbel) — and as she sang the lyric, “Strumming my pain with his fingers,” Pizzarelli played chords on the guitar with his left hand while tapping individual notes with the fingers of his right.

In a more conventional combination, they did two Vincent Youmans-Irving Caesar songs in counterpoint — she singing “I Want to Be Happy” in a quick, staccato fashion, he singing “Sometimes I’m Happy” and occasionally scatting to duplicate the sound of the guitar.

Elliot Zwiebach
Cabaret Scenes
August 13, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org