John Pizzarelli and his band will perform holiday classics and standards at the Center for the Arts.
The College of Staten Island’s Center for the Arts will give music lovers a chance to swing into the holiday season with seasonal favorites and standards from the John Pizzarelli Quartet. John Pizzarelli, a world-renowned jazz guitarist and singer, and his band (pianist Larry Fuller, bassist Martin Pizzarelli, and drummer Tony Tedesco) will spend the evening performing holiday favorites. The John Pizzarelli Quartet: Swingin’ into the Holidays performance will be on Saturday, December 3 in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall at 8:00pm. Tickets are $30, $35, and $40 and can be purchased in person, by phone, by mail, and online through the CFA Box Office, 2800 Victory Boulevard, 1P-113, Staten Island; 718.982.ARTS (2787). Box Office hours are Monday through Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm, and Saturday, noon to 3:00pm.
John Pizzarelli has been playing jazz guitar with his legendary father Bucky since he was six years old. After playing in pickup groups and garage bands through high school, he began exploring jazz with his father as a teenager, and was able to perform with a number of great jazz musicians who would be a major influence on his work, including Benny Goodman, Les Paul, Zoot Sims, Clark Terry, and Slam Stewart. Using performers like Nat “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Joao Gilberto, and the songs of composers such as Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, and James Taylor as touchstones, Pizzarelli has established himself as one of the prime interpreters of the Great American Songbook and beyond, bringing to his work the cool jazz flavor of his brilliant guitar playing and singing. In addition, a popular television commercial for Foxwoods Casino “The Wonder of it All,” has made Pizzarelli a recognizable face in the Northeast.
This musical master has been dubbed “Hip with a wink” by Town & Country, “madly creative” by the Los Angeles Times, “the genial genius of the guitar” by the Toronto Star, and “a tour de force” by The Seattle Times. Pizzarelli received the 2009 Ella Fitzgerald Award from the Montreal International Jazz Festival, joining a select group of past winners including Aretha Franklin, Tony Bennett, and Harry Connick, Jr. Pizzarelli has also successfully launched Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli, his nationally syndicated radio program, co-hosted with his wife, Broadway star Jessica Molaskey. Bringing warmth, humor, and that long-lost “live” feel back to radio, the show takes place in their “deluxe living room high atop Lexington Avenue” and the conversations are relaxed, candid, and off-the-cuff, as is the music. He has interviewed a wide range of guests from Liza Minnelli, Mitch Albom, and Regis Philbin to Kurt Elling, Annie Ross, and Keely Smith.
# # # #
Directions to the Center of the Arts, 2800 Victory Blvd. 1P, Staten Island, NY:
By Car: A few minutes’ drive from Verrazano-Narrows, Goethals, and Bayonne bridges. Take I-278 (the Staten Island Expressway) and exit at Victory Boulevard, proceed to campus parking lots 1 and 2. Parking is free.
By NYC Transit: From Manhattan, the CFA is served by the S62, S61, X10 buses, coordinated with the Staten Island Ferry schedule. From Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, The CFA is served S93 and S53. To plan your trip, use the MTA trip planner.
