::: The Early Years
Music has always been a natural expression for this West Virginia native, who seems to have been born with a desire to play songs. Jack Jezzro grew up in the small town of Rivesville, starting on piano and accordion when he was very young. "“I would go to the piano and start banging out tunes when I was three or four years old,"” he recalls.
His remarkable skill at simultaneously fingering melody and chord changes came naturally to him as a young listener. "“I had a stack of Chet Atkins records, and that’'s how I learned to play,"” Jezzro reports. "“As a kid, I'’d want to play all the parts. I'’d listen to a tune by James Taylor, The Doobie Brothers, Simon & Garfunkel, or whomever. I’'d play the bass part, the piano, the vocal— - and I’'d want to do it all right there on the guitar."”
::: Education
For his bass-playing skills, Jezzro earned a scholarship to West Virginia University in nearby Morgantown. “"I still kept playing guitar, but they didn’'t have a guitar program,"” he says. "“I wanted to go to school there because it was close by, so I picked the bass and really got into it."” The year was 1976. “"That fall, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra came to Morgantown, and I got to meet the principal bass player, Sam Hollingsworth. We immediately hit it off.”"
Hollingsworth took Jezzro under his wings, preparing him for a professional career. By 1978, Jack began playing with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra while still a student at West Virginia University.
After a year with CSO, Jezzro won a scholarship to the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. He studied with renowned double bassist James VanDemark and graduated from Eastman in 1981. While attending Eastman as a student, he also won an audition for and subsequently played in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for two years. Meanwhile, he continued developing as a guitarist by absorbing the sounds of George Benson, Joe Pass, and Jim Hall. After graduation, “"it was either New York, Nashville, or Los Angeles, and Nashville felt more like home"” where he landed a job with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and began breaking into the studio scene.
::: The Jezzro Style
For an instrumentalist, speed and flash are often yardsticks. Innovation and technique unquestionably enter into play. Rhythmic invention, tonal dynamics, repertoire selection, or sophistication of arrangement are also called into the discussion. Jack Jezzro's unique finger-style playing has all of these elements, along with great taste and clever interpretation.
His latest guitar projects combine those elusive qualities instantly recognized when you hear them - —discrimination, polish, grace, and artistry. In addition to sheer taste, another element of Jezzro’'s unique style is that he’'s a contrapuntal guitarist, integrating chordal harmony and melodies into one distinct sound— - clean, lucid, and smooth–– - often performing on a nylon-string guitar.
“"I like to be true to a song,”" Jezzro begins. “"At the same time, I try to do something fresh with a tune. My own sound or style - —that’'s the freshness. I guess we all try to find our unique voice. That’'s what we’'re all striving for. I’m always going to be working for it.”"
"Some guitar trio recordings sound a bit thin or sparse to my ear, so the challenge is to accompany yourself. “One of the things that’'s always been there naturally is being my own accompanist,"” Jezzro says of his special fingerstyle playing. “"I was sort of developing this accompaniment thing before I knew what it was.”"
::: Discology
From 1981 to 1991, Jezzro played bass in the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and in the mid-’80s, he “"began breaking into the studio scene with the Nashville String Machine,”" Music City'’s premiere string section. The String Machine works on all kinds of albums, from Bruce Springsteen to Garth Brooks to Matchbox 20 to Faith Hill to the Beach Boys to Amy Grant as well as major motion pictures including THE ROOKIE, THE GREEN MILE, POCAHONTAS, and CONAIR.
In 1989, Jezzro released the first of his many guitar records, the contemporary jazz outing Step On It, for the major Japanese label Pony Canyon. Step On It was then released in the States in 1991 under the title A Days Journey (with a slightly different set list), earning Jezzro a Grammy nomination.
During the 1990s, he recorded many instrumental albums for the Green Hill label, including salutes to the popular music of George Gershwin and The Beatles arranged for guitar and strings, plus an all-original Latin outing entitled Brazilian Nights, which garnered critical acclaim and radio airplay worldwide.
After history’'s odometer changed to the 2000s, Jezzro released his first jazz trio recording. This edition, titled Jazz Elegance, was released on Hillsboro Jazz (sister label to Green Hill). With a sound befitting it’s title, Jazz Elegance showcases his taste and finesse on jazz standards as well as his warmth and skill on four original pieces. One of Jezzro’'s most recent releases includes a recording of Broadway classics entitled Jazz On Broadway. This project teams him with longtime friend and legendary pianist Beegie Adair and her trio. Another recent outing, Solitude, is a much-requested solo guitar recording of standards.
In addition to his own recordings, Jack Jezzro has produced a wide variety of albums, from Big Band Romance to Lovin' In The Fifies to platinum-selling Smoky Mountain Hymns to the critically-acclaimed jazz projects including Beegie Adair’'s Dream Dancing, Jim Ferguson’'s Not Just Another Pretty Bass featuring saxophonist Chris Potter, Antoine Silverman’'s Blue Moods featuring piano virtuoso Stefan Karlsson, jazz vocal sensation Jaimee Paul’'s Melancholy Baby, acclaimed gospel vocalist Kathy Troccoli’'s Heartsongs and jazz trumpet recording artist Leif Shire’s' What A Wonderful World.
::: Credits
Jezzro has over 200 albums to his production credit. He received a Grammy nomination for A Day’s Journey and seven Dove Award nominations for producing artists such as Brentwood Jazz Quartet, saxophonist Sam Levine, and bluegrass group The New Tradition. He produced the multi-platinum selling Smoky Mountain Hymns recordings, one of which also received a Dove Award nomination. Additionally, The Frank Sinatra Collection by Beegie Adair, produced by Jack Jezzro, won a Nashville Music Award for “"Jazz Album of the Year" in 1998. Most recently, EMI Japan has released several Beegie Adair recordings, all produced by Jack Jezzro. One of those albums, entitled My Piano Romance, was Japan's top selling Jazz album of 2010.
His projects have collectively sold over 10 million copies worldwide and feature a variety of styles including Jazz, Latin, Country, R&B, Easy Listening, New Age, Bluegrass, and Pop.
As an internationally acclaimed guitarist and composer, his music has been heard regularly on jazz radio stations all over the world. He has been a special guest on America’'s Voice to the World’'s “"Jazz Vibrations"” radio show, a program broadcast to over 100 million listeners. His recordings have been heard in numerous television shows, network specials and movies, such as the new Woody Allen movie "To Rome With Love," the 1996 Summer Olympics, Friends, Entertainment Tonight, Good Morning America, J-A-G, A&E Biography, Access Hollywood, E! True Hollywood Story, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, Oprah, Martha Stewart Living, and many more.
Major airlines such as United, Delta, and U.S. Airways frequently offer his music to their travelers. He has served as producer and featured performer on a full-length recording for Walt Disney Records entitled Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings. Jack has also authored books containing some of his original compositions for Mel Bay Publications.
Jack Jezzro continues to be in demand as a producer, recording artist, studio musician and perfomer.
As Time Goes By
Jack Jezzro Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Take ten broken limbs
And make it alright for them
And I needed you more,
More than you'll ever notice
But I need to do more
If you're to ever know this
No, you won't care at all
For you won't care at all
No, you won't care at all
Dance puppet boy
If you do a good job
Then they'll want you again,
Give it all that you've got
Show them the joy and the pain and the ending
Then do it again, and we'll all stop pretending
They'll pay more attention to what's before mentioned
As you bob your head
'cause you're not even listening
A very small few of you even give meanings
But laugh, clown boy, laugh
'cause it's always so pleasing
Feel, damn you, feel
Like you're alive again
I needed to know,
Needed a show of hands
For all this couldn't be sure
As we see a lot of them
And I traded it all,
Could I make a difference
At all?
I met a woman,
She was wonderful,
Everything perfect,
We both had the world
But I filled up my senses
With thoughts from the ghost
And I spent her life savings
Left no room for
Both of us
Crying and trying
And screaming aloud,
I barely can see her tumultuous crowds
Are careful to hide her and sing much too loud
See, you don't even know what I'm talking about
Feel, damn you, feel
Like you're alive again
I needed you more,
Than you would ever've noticed
Et Al
Couldn't be sure
That you would ever notice
But I gave it my all
Did I make a difference at all?
Like you're alive again
Take ten broken limbs
The lyrics to Jack Jezzro's song "As Time Goes By" are a reflection on the struggle to be noticed and appreciated in a world that often passes people by without a second thought. The opening verse speaks to the desire to make things right for those who have been hurt, to bring them back to life, as it were. The singer then reflects on his own need to be seen, to have his contributions recognized, but also acknowledges that it takes more than just wanting to be noticed - he must do something to make a difference.
The chorus plays with the idea of performance, of presenting oneself to the world in a particular way that will garner attention and admiration. The singer speaks to the pain of feeling like a puppet, controlled by outside forces and forced to dance for the entertainment of others. He calls on the audience to feel something, to break free from their apathy and engage with the world around them. The last verse tells a story of a missed opportunity, of a love that was lost because the singer couldn't see beyond his own insecurities and regrets. In the end, he questions whether his efforts were enough to make a difference in the world and in his own life.
Line by Line Meaning
Like you're alive again
Get in touch with your emotions and live life fully
Take ten broken limbs
Fix what's broken and make it better
And make it alright for them
Help others and make their lives better
And I needed you more,
I depended on you heavily
More than you'll ever notice
You didn't realize how much I relied on you
But I need to do more
I must work harder to show you how much I need you
If you're to ever know this
I want you to understand how much I need you
Or you won't care at all
If you don't understand, you won't care
No, you won't care at all
You won't care if you don't know
Dance puppet boy
Do what you're told without question
If you do a good job
If you please the crowd, you'll be rewarded
Then they'll want you again,
The crowd will want to see you perform again
Give it all that you've got
Put your whole heart into your performance
Show them the joy and the pain and the ending
Take the audience on an emotional journey
Then do it again, and we'll all stop pretending
Repeat the performance, and we can all stop pretending
They'll pay more attention to what's before mentioned
The audience will pay attention to what they already know
As you bob your head
You're not even listening, just nodding along
'cause you're not even listening
You're not paying attention
A very small few of you even give meanings
Only a few people truly understand the message
But laugh, clown boy, laugh
Keep performing, despite the lack of understanding
'cause it's always so pleasing
People enjoy being entertained
Feel, damn you, feel
Connect with your emotions
I needed to know,
I had to find out
Needed a show of hands
I needed to see who understood
For all this couldn't be sure
I wasn't sure if anyone understood
As we see a lot of them
We see many people, but not everyone understands
And I traded it all,
I gave up everything
Could I make a difference
Would my sacrifice make things better?
At all?
Did anything change for the better?
I met a woman,
I fell in love
She was wonderful,
She was perfect
Everything perfect,
Our love was perfect
We both had the world
We had everything we could want
But I filled up my senses
I let my emotions take over
With thoughts from the ghost
I was haunted by negative thoughts
And I spent her life savings
I wasted everything we had
Left no room for
I didn't make any space for
Both of us
Both of our needs
Crying and trying
We were both upset and trying to make it work
And screaming aloud,
We were angry and frustrated
I barely can see her tumultuous crowds
I could barely see through the chaos in our relationship
Are careful to hide her and sing much too loud
We tried to put up a good front, but we were struggling
See, you don't even know what I'm talking about
You don't understand the depth of my pain
Et Al
And so on
Couldn't be sure
Not certain
That you would ever notice
That you would ever understand
But I gave it my all
I tried my best
Did I make a difference at all?
Did anything good come from my efforts?
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Herman Hupfeld
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind