At no point during the John Pizzarelli Quartet's tribute to Frank Sinatra with the West Virginia Symphony did the guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli refer to Sinatra as the "Chairman of the Board." In fact, Pizzarelli avoided any caricatures of the legendary vocalist. No whiff of Phil Hartman here, no matter how funny that was.

Pizzarelli did not even sing the song, "New York, New York."

Nor did he sound, at least to my ears, a bit like Sinatra.

Which did not matter in the slightest because Pizzarelli could sing the songs with verve (plus he is a nimble guitarist) and he had all those great arrangements from the Sinatra catalogue.

Those arrangements are often dark and dissonant, but not in an ugly way. Picture them as gleaming 1950s buildings, all sharp lines by day, hard and modernist, but by night the gleam is muted, the hard edges are cool and smooth.

The arrangements had the local orchestra configured as a big band for much of the night with the violins, violas and cellos adding some background support to the trumpets, trombones and tuba. A quintet of saxophones from West Virginia University, led by faculty artist David Wright (full disclosure: I have written eight compositions for him), completed the ensemble.

"The Way You Look Tonight" had tight swing and a scatting vocal with guitar by Pizzarelli.

The quartet's drummer Anthony Tedesco showed some sweet brush work on "You Make Me Feel So Young." The orchestra sounded a bit ragged in the first chorus, the soft big chords just missing.

At no point during the John Pizzarelli Quartet's tribute to Frank Sinatra with the West Virginia Symphony did the guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli refer to Sinatra as the "Chairman of the Board." In fact, Pizzarelli avoided any caricatures of the legendary vocalist. No whiff of Phil Hartman here, no matter how funny that was.

Pizzarelli did not even sing the song, "New York, New York."

Nor did he sound, at least to my ears, a bit like Sinatra.

Which did not matter in the slightest because Pizzarelli could sing the songs with verve (plus he is a nimble guitarist) and he had all those great arrangements from the Sinatra catalogue.

Those arrangements are often dark and dissonant, but not in an ugly way. Picture them as gleaming 1950s buildings, all sharp lines by day, hard and modernist, but by night the gleam is muted, the hard edges are cool and smooth.

The arrangements had the local orchestra configured as a big band for much of the night with the violins, violas and cellos adding some background support to the trumpets, trombones and tuba. A quintet of saxophones from West Virginia University, led by faculty artist David Wright (full disclosure: I have written eight compositions for him), completed the ensemble.

"The Way You Look Tonight" had tight swing and a scatting vocal with guitar by Pizzarelli.

The quartet's drummer Anthony Tedesco showed some sweet brush work on "You Make Me Feel So Young." The orchestra sounded a bit ragged in the first chorus, the soft big chords just missing.

Pizzarelli's fluent delivery of "How About You," a bit bluesy but honey-scented, led to a great solo with a blur of seconds by his pianist Larry Fuller. Wright and Tedesco had assured solos.

Pizzarelli's pale vocal on "I've Got You Under My Skin" left the richer colors to the orchestra, which included alto flute and bass clarinet. The deeply cool arrangement had rich, soft dissonant chords and little riffs in the saxophones and brasses that spun off like sparks.

"Dindi" (pronounced Gingi) had just his guitar and voice in lilting bossa nova style.

He closed the first half with his own "I Like Jersey Best." It was a jovial tribute to his home state that worked its way through suggestions of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys, Lou Reed and Lou Rawls, among many others.

The second act had more fine arrangements from the charging "Witchcraft" (with all of the orchestra involved) to the earnest "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" (in Quincy Jones' scintillating arrangement) often with surprising stories of how the songs came about.

The conductor Grant Cooper is as assured in swing as art music and the orchestra followed with poise.

The concert, which drew quite a large crowd, repeats this evening at the Clay Center at 8 p.m.