With a Song In My Heart

iTunes Review

The work of Richard Rodgers dominated the 20th century American stage musical, and in this century his collaborations with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and, later, Oscar Hammerstein II, still occupy the core of the Great American Songbook. On With a Song in My Heart, guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli presents a dozen pieces by this formidable composer. The results run the gamut from light and breezy renderings to interpretations that can bring a tear to your eye. Veteran Don Sebesky’s effective horn arrangements lend punch to a number of cuts, including “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “This Can’t Be Love,” and the title track. Pizzarelli’s father, the guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, brings his light touch to a spare version of “It’s Easy to Remember,” and the Brazilian pianist and arranger César Camargo Mariano appears on a bossa nova-ized “Happy Talk.” (Pizzarelli also nods toward Brazilian music on “Johnny One Note,” where he references Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “One Note Samba.”) The closer, “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” features a solo Pizzarelli doing a straightforward and moving version of this gem from South Pacific.