JAZZ REVIEW : Pizzarelli Plays Nat Cole Songbook

Guitarist John Pizzarelli, whose trio opened Wednesday at Catalina, is the latest Nat Cole spinoff.

Pizzarelli’s group, which closes Sunday, has the identical instrumentation--piano, guitar, bass--and, at least for the first half-hour, a repertoire straight out of the King Cole Trio book. As a singer, Pizzarelli has a lighter, thinner sound than Cole, closer in fact to Harry Connick Jr. As a guitarist he alternates between single-note lines in the manner of Oscar Moore (Cole’s guitarist) and an even earlier style based on processions of chords that make effective use of his seven-string guitar.

Pizzarelli brought warmth and emotion to “This Will Make You Laugh,” a dash of humor to such Dave Frishberg songs as “I Can’t Take You Nowhere,” and an infectious scat element when he offered Cole’s 1947 “That’s What” in unison with his guitar and Ken Levinsky’s piano. Despite the disparity between Levinsky’s simplistic solos and the Cole originals, he complements the leader adequately.

The set ended with a tasteful guitar solo number, “The Way You Look Tonight,” and a crowd-milking attempt to re-create the old Benny Goodman warhorse “Sing, Sing, Sing.” It adds up to totally derivative but generally pleasant music, guaranteed to familiarize young audiences with a dated but often delectable bill of fare.