RIP Bucky Pizzarelli at age 94 due to coronavirus. Please know you were surrounded with love. Our thoughts are with your son John Pizzarelli and the rest of your family including us. You were always kind and gracious and a helluva guitarist. He was world-renowned for his smooth, fluid, tasteful playing. He performed at the White House for presidents Reagan and Clinton, and in Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” band, and worked with Frank Sinatra, Les Paul, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan,

Remembering the great Bucky Pizzarelli on this day. Born John Paul Pizzarelli on Jan. 9, 1926, in Paterson, N.J., his unlikely nickname was bestowed on him by his father, who as a teenager had decided to explore the Wild West he knew only from movies and spent some time as a ranch hand in Odessa, Texas. He returned to New Jersey with a lot of memories and a lingering love for the West that would lead him to nickname his young son Buckskin. Shortened to Bucky, the name stuck. Pizzarelli was rever