REMEMBERING - New Jersey Jazz Society

JerseyArticlesJazzJOHN PIZZARELLIcontinued from page 32JJ: Hopefully.JP: That’s right.JJ: Both you and Bucky backed RosemaryClooney in her later years. I’ve heard you saythat you learned a lot from her, but justwhat was it she taught you?JP: She came to see us before one show and saidto Jess, my wife, “Just keep telling the truth.” Shemeant musically. All you’ve got to do is tell thetruth, because everybody knows the difference.They can see through you right away. So that’s allyou need to know about Rosemary Clooney. I usedto see her sing “Wee Small Hours” the nights Iworked with her and she would always sing“…that’s the time you miss him most…,” thenshe’d say, “most,” “…of all.” Every night she saidthat second “most” and you knew there was somuch coming out of that one word. You felt like youwere with someone who knew what they weretalking about. I hope that someday I’m that honestin my delivery. I know she was as good as anybodyand I don’t care if she spoke the words, I don’t careif she spit them up; whatever she did, she didbetter than anybody. Rosemary Clooney couldhardly breathe and she sang better than anybody.She was the real McCoy, the best. She was as goodas it got.JJ: I remember hearing her talk about heraddiction problem of years before and thensaying how she still missed the pills soterribly; that said so much about addiction.JP: Yeah, she didn’t deny her past; that wasrefreshing. She knew where she’d come from andput it all into her music.JJ: Do you have any memories of 9/11 youwould be willing to share?JP: The thing I remember is that at the end of ourblock of 90th Street was a bar called The VictoryCafé. It was owned by a former firefighter who losttwo of his nephews from our local fire department.Martin and I drove to St. Louis thefollowing Thursday; I don’t think theplanes were going yet. Somewherealong the way, I remember calling Jessup and saying, “We’ve got to dosomething for Ronnie at the Victory andfor our 85th Street fire department.”She said, “Yeah, let’s see what we canfigure out.” She was home and had justcome from the Victory and thought agood way to help out our friends would be togather them at the bar and try to raise money forour fire department. She did a lot of the leg workwith people from the Victory.I was supposed to do a gig at the Rainbow Roomwith George Shearing and some guy was paying mea decent amount of money and I said, “Well, just soyou know, I’m going to take the money and we’regoing to rent a PA and we’re going to have this sortof block party for our fire department.” Ninetieth isbetween 3rd and Lexington and they were stillgoing to have traffic running. So I said to Ronnie,“You know, a fire truck could break down right at90th and Lexington and nobody could get down thestreet.” He said, “That’s not a bad idea,” but thenaround five o’clock the cops came and said, “Weare closing the street, don’t worry about it.”My trio, Ray Kennedy on piano, Martin Pizzarelli onBass and Bucky on guitar pitched in and played. Sowe put the band on the corner and everybody gottogether. They had people all up and down thestreet, drinking and having, like, an Irish wake. TheVictory provided some food and all the beer, butyou had to pay [to get in.] We had an auction. I [had]called the husband of the lady who ran the Regency[because he] is the head security guy for theYankees. He said, “I got an autographed ball andyou can auction that off and Roger Clemens isgoing to come.” So Roger Clemens showed up, andit was like Babe Ruth showing up. He was fantastic.He stayed for a couple of hours. [When we auctionedthat ball], I won it and gave it to my son.[Then Roger] auctioned off the jacket he wore thenight the Yankees came back. It was as beautiful anevening as you could have and Ronnie took $85,000in a brown paper bag to our fire department. So outof that horrific scene was this coming together ofall these beautiful people; that was really amazing.I remember thinking after it all happened, like, onSeptember 13th, “I’ve got to make a record withGeorge Shearing. Is there really going to be anymusic? Is there really a reason to keep singingthese songs?” When we went into the studio onOctober 12th, I realized why we were doing it. Wewere singing “September in the Rain,” “Lost April”and “The Lady’s in Love with You” with one of theverses: “If you’ve been traveling byplane and she says please take thetrain;” and here’s George Shearing stillcontinuing to play. It was ratherreaffirming. And that December playing“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”with James Taylor on the Today Show,when they were talking about how thisChristmas was going to be differentfrom everything. There was so muchemotion in all those following months artisticallythat was really amazing.JJ: Indeed it was. Since you’ve mentioned“artistically,” what art do you have at home?JP: We have jazz photographs actually. I have twoof Zoot Sims, one by Bill Claxton and one by AlWhite. I have just two Bill Claxtons. We met BobGomel, who took pictures for LIFE magazine, andmy wife got me three Peggy Lees that he took andthey are amazing. I have two William Gottliebphotographs; one that Dave and Martha fromShanghai Jazz gave me of Django Reinhardt andthen a friend gave me one of Joe Mooney. So I’vegot a lot of good photographs around the place andthere’s a little Bucky Pizzarelli art here and thereJJ: Is there a film or book that you feelshows the real life of a jazz musician?JP: I think that Broadway show Sideman waspretty interesting. Round Midnight was sort of sad.There is always the musician who is your friend andthen is no longer around because they can’t handlethe drinking or whatever. Oh, I love The BennyGoodman Story. That is one of my favorite moviesbecause it’s so crazy. There is always somebodywho says, “Hey Benny, don’t be that way!” I find[that] to be wildly entertaining. But no, I don’t thinkthere is any movie where you go, “Oh, that’s whatthe jazz life is really like.” [Phone rings to “TakeFive.”] Oh, that’s Don Sebesky.JJ: Do you want to take that and I’ll callback?JP: No, he just called me on my cell phone. I’vegot to call him back. I called him an hour agobecause I need a chart for a pops gig in Houstonnext year. I’m doing a Gershwin show and I said Ineed “Fascinating Rhythm” and he said, “Oh, OK. Ican do that.” Knowing Don he’s probably got itwritten already. So that is great. [Laughs]JJ: I’ve taken enough of your time, though.I enjoyed talking to you and please tell yourwife that we enjoyed her performance whenwe saw Sunday in the Park with George.JP: Thanks so much. I appreciate it.JJJohn’s web page,www.johnpizzarelli.com is wellworth a visit. There is a link tolisten to the popularPizzarelli/Molaskey Radio Deluxeshow as well as numerousYouTube videos.Schaen Fox is a longtime jazz fan. Now retired, he devotes much of his time to the music, and shares his encounters with musicians in this column.34_________________________________ October 2009