John Pizzarelli: This Can't Be Love

John Pizzarelli is a jazz guitarist born in 1960. His father Bucky Pizzarelli is a jazz guitarist born in 1926. But John may be even more old-fashioned than dear old dad, crafting a style that is distinctly retro and with no pretensions to keeping up with the times. Here the younger Pizzarelli resurrects a song that was composed before his father even started his professional career, and plays it with perfect sympathy for the words and music. Don Sebesky contributes a simple but very effective chart, and the band plays it with a jaunty swing groove that is as comfortable as a first-class seat on an old Pan Am Clipper. This is not the next new thing, just the old tried and true. But Pizzarelli is a charming performer, and has pulled it all together on this solid track.