Midnight McCartney

Midnight McCartney

• Personal letter, McCartney to Pizzarelli: "Do post-Beatles songs, some lesser known than others?" John played guitar on Kisses On The Bottom & backed Paul in live performances:GRAMMY Awards, MusiCares Person of the Year gala & initial TV live broadcast

Paul McCartney had a great idea for an album. He just needed John Pizzarelli to make it. On September 11th, Concord Records will release Midnight McCartney. I got an idea in my head, McCartney wrote to Pizzarelli in late May 2014. "It might be interesting for you and Bucky to do a few of my songs that are lesser known than some of the others. I realize this may be a little immodest, if not pushy. I imagine the songs would include post-Beatles melodies of mine like 'Love in the Open Air' (from the soundtrack to 1967 film The Family Way), 'Junk,' 'Warm and Beautiful' and, possibly, 'My Valentine.'" <br><br>"My Valentine" was the one McCartney composition on his album of songs from the '30s and '40s, Kisses on the Bottom (MPL/Hear Music/Concord). Pizzarelli played guitar on the album and backed Sir Paul on a handful of prestigious live performances, including the GRAMMY Awards, MusiCares Person of the Year gala and the initial iTunes/Apple TV live broadcast. McCartney concluded in his letter, "The attraction for me is lesser-known tunes done in a mellow jazz style and, if it gets some traction, maybe the album could be titled Midnight McCartney. As I said, this may tickle your fancy or you may decide these are the ramblings of a deranged composer with too much time on his hands." <br><br>To say John Pizzarelli was tickled is putting it mildly. Pizzarelli, his wife Jessica Molaskey co-producer of Midnight McCartney - and pianist Larry Goldings immediately went into research mode, digging through McCartney's albums of the last 45-plus years to find songs that could be re-harmonized and adapted for Pizzarelli's trademark style. The beauty of the project was having a lot of time to sit and listen to these things and make sure it was right, Pizzarelli says. "There were a lot of things we had never done before a lot of background vocals, additional horns and handclaps. That really made it into something."<br><br>And like most Pizzarelli records, it's a family affair: wife Jessica Molaskey co-produced the album and provides background vocals; John's father Bucky adds rhythm guitar on several tracks and a stunning solo on "Junk"; brother Martin is on bass throughout; and teenage daughter Madeline got into the act, transcribing "Warm and Beautiful" for her father to sing in a different key. "We're McCartney fans and this is our way of letting people know these are good songs", he says. "It's a take on the songs within a style we're comfortable with. If one became a hit, we'd be fine with playing it for the next 20 years."