John Pizzarelli with Daniel Jobim
Strictly Bossa Nova II
Café Carlyle, NYC, April 21, 2015
Reviewed by Annamaria Alfieri for Cabaret Scenes
Photo: Mireya Acierto
John Pizzarelli had to make a lot of right choices in order to turn his current show at Café Carlyle into the pluperfect entertainment it is. He picked fellow musicians who delivered all that could be asked. Daniel Jobim, grandson of the bossa nova giant Antonio Carlos Jobim, added true Brazilian flavor and lent a voice that blended well with Pizzarelli’s mellow baritone. The accompanists—Helio Alves (piano), Martin Pizzarelli (bass) and Duduka Dafonseca (drums)—provided musical and rhythmic excitement and raised the proceedings to heady Latin heights.
The playlist included a just-right combination of hits, sprinkled with imaginative song parings and unexpected treats. The evening began with three cuts from the seminal Joao Gilberto album Amoroso: “’S Wonderful,” “Tin Tin Por Tin Tin,” and a rendition of “Besame Mucho” that managed to be cool and jazzy and hot and sexy all at the same time.
The evening moved on to a blessedly heavy dose of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s brilliant tunes. Daniel Jobim accompanied himself on piano for a gently soaring “Two Kites.” Then, with Alves back at the keyboard, we were in for some sparkling piano embellishments in “How Insensitive” and “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” (“Corcovado”). Michael Franks’s paean to Jobim, “Antonio’s Song,” delighted with great rhythms and intricate lyrics. Then, Pizzarelli’s own “Soares Samba” gave the band members a chance to show off their individual and considerable skills. They had the denizens of the headquarters of swank moving and dancing in their seats.
In one of their sterling duets, Pizzarelli and Jobim combined A.C. Jobim’s “If You Never Come to Me” with Irving Berlin’s “Change Partners,” revealing new, plaintive pleasures in both songs. Sondheim’s “I Remember” melted directly into an intimate “Waters of March.” The set finished with a rousing “Aquelas Coisas Todas, and the encore—a swinging, danceable “Água de Beber” —left the audience with energy to take home.
Pizzarelli & Jobin continue at Café Carlyle Tuesdays-Saturdays through May 2.
