John Pizzarelli has just released a new album called Better Days Ahead, a solo guitar recording that strips down the music of Pat Metheny.

Having loved the recordings of the Pat Metheny Group since his teenage years, Pizzarelli was eager to dive deep into Metheny’s catalogue and deconstruct the group arrangements on his seven-string guitar. The result is Pizzarelli’s first solo guitar album in his 40-year career, brought on by challenging circumstances and the inspiration that helped him through it.

In a great year so far, Pizzarelli also recently won a Grammy Award as the co-producer of James Taylor’s latest album American Standard. 

Pizzarelli joined us to talk about his latest projects.