Bucky Pizzarelli
Overview
 
John Paul "Bucky" Pizzarelli (born January 9, 1926) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarist
Jazz guitarists are guitar players who play jazz music on the guitar using an approach to playing chords, melodies, and improvised solo lines which is called jazz guitar playing. The guitar has fulfilled the roles of accompanist and soloist in small and large ensembles and also as an unaccompanied...

 and banjoist, and the father of jazz guitarist John Pizzarelli
John Pizzarelli
John Paul Pizzarelli, Jr. is an American jazz guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and bandleader. He has had a lengthy career as a recording artist, performing for a variety of labels that include Telarc Records, RCA Records and Chesky Records, among others...

 and upright bassist Martin Pizzarelli
Martin Pizzarelli
Martin Pizzarelli is a jazz double-bassist who is best known for his work with his brother John Pizzarelli, appearing on many of his albums in a swing trio that includes pianists Ray Kennedy and Larry Fuller. He has recorded one album as bandleader for Victoria Records with Kennedy and his father,...

. Pizzarelli has also worked for NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 as a staffman for Dick Cavett
Dick Cavett
Richard Alva "Dick" Cavett is a former American television talk show host known for his conversational style and in-depth discussion of issues...

 (1971) and also ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 with Bobby Rosengarden
Bobby Rosengarden
Robert Marshall Rosengarden was a jazz drummer, percussionist and bandleader. A native of Elgin, Illinois, he was a solid and versatile contributor on countless recording sessions and playing in TV network orchestras and talk-show bands.Rosengarden began playing drums when he was 12, and later...

 in (1952). The list of musicians Pizzarelli has collaborated with over his career includes Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...

, Stephane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli
Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first all-string jazz bands....

, and Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

. Pizzarelli acknowledges Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt was a pioneering virtuoso jazz guitarist and composer who invented an entirely new style of jazz guitar technique that has since become a living musical tradition within French gypsy culture...

, Freddie Green
Freddie Green
Frederick William "Freddie" Green was an American swing jazz guitarist. He was especially noted for his sophisticated rhythm guitar in big band settings, particularly for the Count Basie orchestra, where he was part of the "All-American Rhythm Section" with Basie on piano, Jo Jones on drums, and...

, and George Van Eps
George Van Eps
George Van Eps was an American swing and Mainstream jazz guitarist noted both for his recordings as a leader, and for his work as a session musician. He was also the author of instructional books that explored his approach to guitar-based harmony...

 for their influences on his style and mode of play.
Pizzarelli began his professional career at 17 when he joined the Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.-Biography:...

 dance band in 1944.
Quotations

"Look, these people... they have no jobs, no food, no education, no future. I just figure that you know, I mean, we have two things we can do. We can help, or we can sit back and watch a country destroy itself on CNN. Right?"

"Look, you guys, I know it's my first time as chalk leader, but, uh, this isn't our first time out together. This is serious. We're Rangers, not some sorry-ass JROTC. We're elite. Let's act like it out there."

"All right, listen up. We're gonna hold the perimeter and we're gonna hold the strongpoint. Conserve your ammo. Only shoot at what you can hit. The convoy is gonna come. We're gonna get home."

"Watch for Skinnies. They're all over the rooftops. They're in prayer, but not for much longer."

(to the dying Cpl. Jamie Smith) "You did what we were trained to do. You should be proud of that. Be proud of that."

"You know, a friend of mine asked me before I got here... it was when we were all shipping out. He asked me, 'Why are you going to fight somebody else's war? What, do y'all think you're heroes?' I didn't know what to say at the time, but if he asked me again, I'd say no. I'd say there's no way in hell. Nobody asks to be a hero. It just sometimes turns out that way."

"Hey - who's hungry?"

"You wanna know what I think? It don't really matter what I think. Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit, just goes right out the window."

"Just watch your corner and get all your men back here alive."

"It'd probably help to wash the blood out of the humvees."

 
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