Bucky Pizzarelli and Benny Green / Vancouver, Canada / June 18th - 19th, 2009 / Jazz
When
you put two world class performers and legends on the stage together,
expectations can often run so high that the actual concert feels like a bit
of a letdown, but on June 19th, at the Cellar Restaurant / Jazz
Club on Vancouver’s west side, guitar virtuoso “Bucky” Pizzarelli and master
pianist Benny Green, exceeded even their staunchest fans’ expectations, as
they completed the second night of a two gig run in this west coast city.
During our soon to be published interview with “Bucky” Pizzarelli, which finished, just minutes before he took to the stage, he was not willing to reveal much of what the audience would hear later in the evening, other than to say, that, “You will hear two musicians having a conversation.” True to his word, the first song in the opening set began slowly and quietly, like two people engaging in small talk, as they were getting to know one another, before the music increased in tempo, as they played John Coltrane’s “Robbin’s Nest.” The audience broke into spontaneous applause at the mid-point in the song, demonstrating their appreciation for the playing of both men, and a smile broke across Pizzarelli’s face as he accompanied Green’s elegant caressing of the piano keys.
In the absence of a bassist, Pizzarelli made use of the seventh string on his archtop guitar, and created a walking bassline, as Green took his turn in the spotlight while the duo played “If I Had You,” before they moved into the swinging “Tangerine,” a song which Pizzarelli recorded with Frank Sinatra.
It is likely that Green and Pizzarelli who are touring together and have recorded an album together, can play any type of music that they set their minds to, as they are not only supremely accomplished musicians, but have covered most genres between them, with Green being trained as both a classical and jazz pianist and Pizzarelli having played and recorded with artists such as, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Dion and the Belmonts and Ray Charles. Green has recorded with Diana Krall, Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, Houston Person and Art Blakey to name just a few.
It is difficult to determine if it was Green’s breathtaking elegant playing of “I’ll Never Stop Loving You,” or Pizzarelli’s nimble fingering of the fretboard during “Stompin’ At The Savoy,” which evoked the strongest emotional response from the audience. Often as Benny Green played you could hear people quietly whisper “wow!” Each solo section received rousing applause.
Other highlights included Pizzarelli’s solo on the slow, meandering, “Nuages,” and Green’s glorious performance on the uplifting Duke Ellington tune “Azure-Te.” At one point, Green in acknowledging Pizzarelli’s playing, said, “It takes two things to be able to play like that; one, a lifetime in music, and two, to be “Bucky” Pizzarelli.”
The highlight of the second set came early on as the duo performed Cedar Walton’s “Cedar’s Blues,” a song which witnessed another phenomenal display of Green’s immense talents as a pianist, and the audience again demonstrated their appreciation.
There could not have been a more appropriate precursor to the Vancouver International Jazz Festival which is scheduled to open during the last weekend of June.
June 19th, 2009
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