Any inveterate straphanger’ll point out that you can’t take the “A” train to Lenox Hill. Lenox Avenue, sure; but ride the “A” train to the East Side and you’ll end up way west.
Except this week, anyway. John Pizzarelli, that timeless troubadour, starts his new set at the Carlyle with “Take the ‘A’ Train,” and he takes it, all right. Backed by Isaiah J. Thompson on piano and Mike Karn on double bass, the Pizzarelli Trio launches into a jubilant Ellingtonian ride that’ll express you, figuratively, all the way up to Sugar Hill in Harlem.
That’s only the starting point for a jaunty salute to the Duke. Pizzarelli and guitar are back at Café Carlyle, filling the room with sheer musicality of the jazz persuasion. Habitués will praise his virtuosic playing, or his scatting, or his rhapsodic flights of song. But more than this, we find, is his sheer joy at doing what he does. Pizzarelli gets carried away, as is his wont, and blissfully so. Time and again, from set to set and venue to venue and year to year, you feel like he’s not up there to entertain his audience (though he’s amassed a large and loyal following): He’s up there entertaining himself, carried away by all those notes and chords and the uncanny sounds he brings forth. His joy is irrepressible; he can’t help but wafting it across the tables to everyone, inviting all to partake, and the joint, as always, is jumpin’.
Timeless, too; he’s been doing this since forever—back in the early ’90s he was the opening act for Frank Sinatra—but the music and the guitar-picking is timeless. Peter Pan Pizzarelli, call him. (Well, maybe not.) He is well supported by the sidemen at his side. Thompson does wonderfully at the Steinway. Still on the near side of 30, the Juilliard-trained jazzman offers impeccable support, following his leader while at the same time offering stunning flights of improvisation. Karn, too, works wonders on the bass. In additional to many featured fills across the evening, each is offered a solo spot, with Karn (“In a Sentimental Mood”) and Thompson (“Come Sunday”) bracketing Pizzarelli’s “Just Squeeze Me.”
The current act is pure Ellington, starting at the top—what a ride they give us with that runaway “‘A’ Train”—and building from there. Next comes “Satin Doll,” and we’re on a Dukal excursion (albeit without a “Caravan” in sight or hearing). Songs familiar (“Mood Indigo,” “In a Sentimental Mood”) are mixed with those less so (“In a Mellow Tone,” “Cotton Tail”). Also of note are “Solitude,” a rousing “C Jam Blues,” and what Pizzarelli has fashioned as a ruminative version of “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.”
Topping the set, along with “‘A’ Train” and “Satin Doll,” is a rambunctious “It Don’t Mean a Thing” which takes off like a rocket and sure does “got that swing.” As does M. Pizzarelli himself.
John Pizzarelli: Salute to Duke Ellington opened May 5, 2026, at Café Carlyle and runs through May 9. Tickets and information: rosewoodhotels.com
