For Centennial Reasons: 100 Year Salute To Nat King Cole

For Centennial Reasons... features several songs Pizzarelli hasn't previously recorded, from timeless well-known ballads (When I Fall in Love, Body and Soul, The Very Thought of You) to idiosyncratic jazz classics (Bobby Troup's I'm Such a Hungry Man, Save the Bones for Henry Jones). The album also revisits and updates several numbers that Pizzarelli recorded earlier in his career. After years of performing live, he explains, the trio has developed and refined these songs and, over time, figured out what we feel have become the definitive versions. Some arrangements, like 'Route 66,' have gotten much faster. But 'Straighten Up and Fly Right,' which I recorded for my first album way back in 1983, has settled into more of a mellow tone. After all this time, I can slow down and savor it. These songs never get old.