Jazz review | A swell double-date with John Pizzarelli and Jessica Molaskey

Jazz Review |

They're sort of the George Burns-Gracie Allen of music, but with a gender switch from that late, revered comedy couple.

Guitarist and crooner John Pizzarelli is the zany Gracie of this pair. And his singer-actress wife, Jessica Molaskey, plays the calm, droll George Burns role to perfection in their act.

Together, they make a charming twosome, musically and otherwise, at Jazz Alley, where the couple continues a four-night stand through Sunday.

During Thursday's highly satisfying opening show, the fleet-fingered instrumentalist and savvy vocalist Pizzarelli reminded the packed crowd that he first appeared at Jazz Alley in the early 1990s.

The trim, copper-haired Molaskey interjected that around the same time, she was here too, in a touring Broadway production of "The Who's Tommy."

"I wish I'd met him then," she told us wryly. "It would have saved me about six years of bad dates."

Now 12 years hitched, the couple are great double-date material. And on disc and in person, they accommodate their different musical styles adroitly.

When he isn't cracking wise, Pizzarelli remains a master of Nat King Cole cool, swinging such standards as "Just in Time."

And he's ever the guitar virtuoso, swapping blistering riffs with his combo's superb pianist Larry Fuller, a local favorite who for years worked with legendary Seattle singer Ernestine Anderson.(Terrific veteran drummer Tony Tedesco is also at hand.)

Molaskey isn't a jazz singer per se but a Broadway baby with a clear, unfussy, fully expressive high alto that at times has a hint of Joni Mitchell in it.

Though she sounded a bit husky at the set's start (a summer cold?), Molaskey warmed up with tender solo renditions of such offbeat gems as Paul Simon's ruminative "Hearts and Bones" and Billy Joel's beautiful "Summer, Highland Falls," the latter slowed down plaintively.

Such creative song choices characterized the set, which included a couple of medleys that showcased both performers' styles well.

One was a bouquet of "happy" tunes, including Pizzarelli's hip, minor-key setting of, interestingly, "Happy Talk" from the musical "South Pacific." There was also a bevy of sophisticated tunes about love and marriage, including two with blazingly fast, tongue-twisting lyrics: "Cloudburst," an old Lambert, Hendricks and Ross number aced by Pizzarelli, interlaced with Molaskey's word-perfect rip through Stephen Sondheim's premarital freakout song, "Getting Married Today" (from the musical "Company").

In between such delights, Pizzarelli offered self-deprecating and funny accounts of the pair's wedding (Tony Bennett came, stayed for hours, but refused to sing); their clan (which includes John's brother and bassist, Martin Pizzarelli, and their guitarist father, Bucky Pizzarelli); and anything else that popped into his head.

Though there's no mushy stuff on the bandstand — and Molaskey at times rolls her eyes in a see-what-I-have-to-put-up-with? way — the affection, respect and shared sense of fun between these two performers is very evident.

They closed the set duetting on a hip romp through "Tea for Two." And who could ask for anything more?

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com