John Pizzarelli, Dear Mr. Bennett Review

by Jeff Becker

John Pizzarelli’s Dear Mr. Bennett carries the warmth of a personal and musical inheritance. Drawing from songs closely tied to Tony Bennett’s voice and presence, Pizzarelli approaches the material as continuation of his style and those who have influenced it. Allowing phrasing, pacing, and the space between notes to speak in his own language. The setting is deliberately spare: guitar, piano, bass, and voice. Without the cushion of a larger ensemble, the songs are held together by touch, timing, and the jazz language agreement of the players.

Listen closely to the swing redistribution on Dear Mr. Bennett, and you will hear swing is built through connection. Mike Karn’s acoustic bass walks with defined articulation, each note placed squarely in the center of the beat; Pizzarelli’s guitar answers with compact, percussive quarter-note chords; Isaiah J. Thompson fills the open space with chordal jabs, elegant-inflected right-hand motio that stretch across registers. Time is not stated by a ride cymbal, but the way it is assembled across bass, guitar, piano, and voice.

The Reassignment of time emerges from alignment within the trio. Pizzarelli’s guitar provides a clear layer. On “Watch What Happens,” once the guitar enters, the pulse becomes audible through evenly spaced quarter-note comping. Short, dry chords that sit directly in the beat. During Thompson’s piano solo, Pizzarelli strips his role down to pure timekeeping, marking each quarter note chord to have a strong and consistent backbeat attack while the piano moves freely above it.

Karn’s bass supplies forward motion. On “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” and “Shakin’ the Blues Away,” his walking lines connect note to note with clear attack and sustain, pushing the line ahead without rushing. Even when he leans into melodic ideas, he continues walking in many of his solos, keeping the pulse intact rather than stepping out of it.

Thompson operates with layers of motion. On “Firefly,” his left hand leans into a stride-like pattern, alternating bass and chord tones that reinforce each beat, while his right hand places syncopated figures that tighten the groove. On “Because of You,” he spaces chords around the vocal line, then builds an energetic layer during his solo that moves into blues-shaped phrases and multi-octave runs that increase momentum without altering tempo.

Pizzarelli’s vocal phrasing is the voice inside the time. He shapes time through articulation. On “The Best Is Yet to Come,” each return to the title phrase flows differently as some phrases sit slightly ahead of the beat, others settle deeper into it. He also is reshaping the melody line without changing it’s character. Consonants align with the swing, functioning like rhythmic accents.

On “Watch What Happens,” the glide into the title phrase acts like a pickup into the beat, pulling the line forward before the next bar settles. The phrasing locks with the bass and guitar, reinforcing the swing.

In rubato passages, like in “It Amazes Me” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” the voice helps guide to the time. The shift into swing arrives collectively, often following the length of a held note or the placement of a new phrase. There is no percussive cue; the ensemble re-enters time through shared phrasing.

The trio’s timekeeping becomes highlighted as texture shifts. On “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” the trading sections reveal the chemistry. Karn continues walking without interruption, anchoring the form. Pizzarelli alternates between single-note lines, often sung in unison with his guitar, and short bursts of chordal comping. Thompson answers with rhythmic figures and fills, entering and exiting to refine the pulse.

“Firefly” has movements when Pizzarelli’s strummed chords maintain the quarter-note feel, Thompson’s figures connecting to each beat, and Karn’s walking line stays even and centered. The swing is built from repeated points of contact. The feel lives in the guitar attack, bass articulation, piano accents.

On “The Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” the feel shifts into straight eighths. Pizzarelli holds a steady Latin chord pattern, Karn locks into the groove with consistent placement, and Thompson threads moving harmonies and single-note lines between vocal phrases. As the tune develops, Thompson increases activity while the guitar maintains the rhythmic figure, creating a layered pulse that remains stable beneath the texture.

At the close, “Shakin’ the Blues Away” brings the trio into swing blues alignment. Karn walks continuously, Pizzarelli locks into Freddie Green comping, and Thompson builds his solo from blues figures that expand rhythmically across the bar. Ensemble hits land together with clean attack before resolving into the final chord.

Together the trio creates the grid that carries the music forward. Each element contributes to the same function, shifting responsibility as the texture changes. The listener can easily hear how the feel is built. Each player placing the beat where we can feel it.

And in that, Dear Mr. Bennett reveals its core principle: swing is not imposed. It is agreed upon, maintained, and renewed in chemistry.