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Bucky Pizzarelli

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Bucky Pizzarelli performs at his induction ceremony for the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2011. Rich Schultz/AP hide caption

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Rich Schultz/AP

The Coronavirus Crisis

Bucky Pizzarelli, Jazz Guitarist And Prolific Session Musician, Dead At 94

April 2, 2020 • Bucky Pizzarelli, a tasteful sage of jazz guitar who spent the first phase of his career as a prolific session player and the latter as a celebrated patriarch, died on Wednesday in Saddle River, N.J.

Two Generations Of Jazz Guitar Tune Up For Father's Day

Father and son Bucky and John Pizzarelli have been playing guitar together since the latter was a kid. Steven Freeman/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Steven Freeman/Courtesy of the artist

Music

Two Generations Of Jazz Guitar Tune Up For Father's Day

June 15, 2013 • Bucky Pizzarelli and his son, John, have been collaborating since John was a kid. They perform live in NPR's studios.

Two Generations Of Jazz Guitar Tune Up For Father's Day

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Charlie Christian was a forerunner in establishing the musical language of bebop. Greg Murray hide caption

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Greg Murray

Take Five: By Instrument

Five Pioneers Of Electric Jazz Guitar

Jazz24

January 15, 2013 • Prior to the advent of electrical amplification, the role of the guitar in jazz was strictly that of a chorded rhythm instrument. But as soon as guitarists could plug into an amplifier, the electric guitar started making its presence felt as an improvisational voice in jazz. Every guitarist now playing owes something to at least one of these pioneering jazz guitarists.

Bucky Pizzarelli. Joe Kohen/WireImage hide caption

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Joe Kohen/WireImage

Studio Sessions

Bucky Pizzarelli On Piano Jazz

April 2, 2010 • The guitarist plays the swinging tunes of the 1930s with his son and guest host, John Pizzarelli.

Bucky Pizzarelli On Piano Jazz

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Music Interviews

Jazz Guitar Legend Bucky Pizzarelli Still Swings

February 21, 2009 • Pizzarelli is known as one of jazz's great chord soloists, as well as an extraordinary rhythm player. Now 83, Pizzarelli was recently honored by the New York Public Library as one of its speakers at the "Duke Jazz Talks," an interview series in which he performed with his son, John Pizzarelli.

Jazz Guitar Legend Bucky Pizzarelli Still Swings

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