I didn’t think I cared for the music made by John Pizzarelli. I’ve long dismissed the guitarist as an eager-to-please showman. The stunning Better Days Ahead: Solo Guitar Takes on Pat Metheny forced me to revise my bias. Not only are Pizzarelli’s unadorned arrangements of thirteen Pat Metheny compositions entirely devoid of ostentation, his interpretations instill an even greater appreciation of the Missouri native.
Praising Metheny’s compositional skill in a livestream on the day of Better Days Ahead’s release, Pizzarelli called the Lee’s Summit native “a modern-day Aaron Copeland.” The comparison is apt. Pizzarelli’s ravishingly beautiful and inspiring renditions on seven-string guitar further affirm the assessment.
A discriminating editor, Pizzarelli reduces each song to its melodic essence, no simple task given the complexity of many of the compositions. Pizzarelli’s ingenious arrangement of the intricate Pat Metheny Group track “Last Train Home” retains the essence of the original without resorting to flash or gimmicks.
Pizzarelli doesn’t limit his reappraisals to familiar favorites like “Last Train Home,” “James” and “Phase Dance.” The title track of the 2020 album From This Place is among the lesser known selections lovingly spotlighted by Pizzarelli. Liberated from its original smooth jazz trappings, “Spring Ain’t Here” is given a sorely-needed renovation.
Created in quarantine, Better Days Ahead is an implausible but entirely welcome by-product of the pandemic. The album affirms Metheny’s brilliance and reveals Pizzarelli to be much more than a corny huckster. Not only are better days ahead, Pizzarelli’s profound detour reinforces the notion that happy days are here again.