[Dixielandjazz] Molaskey, Pizzarelli & Weinstein

[Stephen G Barbone]

No, they are not Dixieland  and not a Law Firm, but surely OKOM. Wish  
I could get up to NYC to see them, but unfortunately can't.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband

April 2, 2009  -  NY TIMES  -  By Stephen Holden
Jazz-Pop With a Couple’s Repartee

Jessica Molaskey and John Pizzarelli added a delicious flavor to their  
deluxe line of theatrically savvy pop-jazz at Birdland on Tuesday  
evening. The new element giving an extra texture to a largely  
retrospective program headlined by Ms. Molaskey — who was supported by  
her husband, Mr. Pizzarelli, on guitar, and by his band (Larry Fuller  
on piano; Martin Pizzarelli, his brother, on bass; and Tony Tedesco on  
drums) — was Aaron Weinstein’s violin.

Displaying the sweet, sassy verve of a baby Stéphane Grappelli, Mr.  
Weinstein led the Molaskey-Pizzarelli extended family into a  
contemporary approximation of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France,  
but with a formidable singer attached. As Ms. Molaskey skipped through  
“When the Red, Red Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin’ Along,” “Happy Habit”  
and “Somebody Loves Me,” with Mr. Weinstein’s fiddle dancing beside  
her while Mr. Pizzarelli provided shadow vocals and his guitar kept a  
euphoric pulse, their first set soared up, up and away.

It was a triple-barreled evening at Birdland, where Ms. Molaskey and  
company are playing two shows a night (at 9 and 11) through Saturday,  
and Jason Robert Brown, the dynamic Broadway composer and singer- 
songwriter, is playing 7 p.m. shows. Mr. Brown is the leader of his  
own musical clan that on Tuesday included Gary Sieger on guitar, Randy  
Landau on bass, and the guest singers Lauren Kennedy (from his Off- 
Broadway show “The Last Five Years”), Allie Trimm (an alumna of his  
recent Broadway show “13”) and Kate Pazakis. The Molaskey-Pizzarelli  
and Brown crews are connected, Ms. Molaskey having been in Mr. Brown’s  
1998 Broadway musical, “Parade.”

I could exhaust my list of superlatives describing how Ms. Molaskey  
and Mr. Pizzarelli’s musical and comedic repartee sustains an  
easygoing sophistication that is unmatched in my nightclub experience.  
They can come up with brilliant moments of musical trompe l’oeil, as  
in their affectionate re-creation of the sound of Les Paul and Mary  
Ford in an original song, “Tried Too Hard for Too Long,” or position  
songs together (Stephen Sondheim’s “Sorry- Grateful” and Paul Simon’s  
“Hearts and Bones”) to contemplate the stresses of marriage.

At their deepest, they can take you on a journey that leaves your eyes  
moist. In their fusion of “The Circle Game” and “Waters of March,” Ms.  
Molaskey’s light, happy-sad voice floated you into a time warp where  
you were all ages at once, looking forward and back. This inspired  
fusion of Joni Mitchell and Antonio Carlos Jobim is something to  
experience.

Mr. Brown has had his successes, but after the recent failure of “13,”  
he is still waiting for the Big One. And so is the devoted following  
that cheered him on. His next major opportunity is a work in progress  
adapted from the Nicolas Cage movie “Honeymoon in Vegas.” He said from  
the stage that he was looking for a producer to raise $12 million to  
bring it to Broadway. The sample tune he offered, “When You Say  
Vegas,” was a funny, barbed chamber-of-commerce pitch for the wonders  
of Sin City delivered with Rat Pack crassness.

I didn’t see “13,” but “Being a Geek” and “What It Means to Be a  
Friend” (sung plaintively by Ms. Trimm), the set’s two songs extracted  
from that show, stand by themselves as believable adolescent slices of  
life expressed in modern Broadway prosody. Mr. Brown, like Billy Joel  
in the early 1970s, specializes in rapid-fire lyrics crammed with  
social observation and plays the piano with a similarly frantic  
virtuosity. Now 38, he continues to exude the hunger of a young man in  
a hurry. The talent is there; the home run of which he is capable  
remains to be slammed into the bleachers. But when?

Jessica Molaskey and John Pizzarelli perform through Saturday, with  
sets by Jason Robert Brown, at Birdland, 315 West 44th Street,  
Clinton; (212) 581-3080.