When John Pizzarelli, 58, looks back over his undeniably successful career, he says an important ingredient to his success as a musician, vocalist and recording artist is that he worked with his father, multi-faceted guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, until he was almost 30.

“It was like a 10-year apprenticeship, where I was able to work on the songs that I liked for the singing part, and also to get the guitar playing together, while getting to play with this guy who would tell you if you were doing something wrong. That was really a benefit,” Pizzarelli said. “The best part for me was not really having my own group until I was 30. I think I was 31 or 32 when I first got out to Honolulu.”

That early concert was a performance at the East-West Center, when Pizzarelli was still a relative unknown.

He’s back in Honolulu this week for two nights at the Blue Note Hawaii.

TAKING A call to his “upper west side Manhattan apartment, with a great view of 84th Street,” Pizzarelli said his Blue Note Hawaii set will be topped with selections from his newly released album, “For Centennial Reasons: 100 Year Salute to Nat King Cole.” Recorded to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Cole’s birth on Mar. 17, 1919, the album will be available at the venue.

“Nat Cole is really the reason why I do what I do, and so we made a little trio record,” he said. “Konrad Paszkudzki on piano and Micheal Karn on bass. We’ll be playing a lot of that, but in the midst of our sets we do play some of the Sinatra and Jobim things. We try to cover all bases.”

Those “Sinatra and Jobim things” are songs from “Sinatra & Jobim @ 50,” Pizzarelli’s 2017 album, which takes a look back at 1967’s “Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim.”

Jazz critics praise the album as one of Pizzarelli’s best. He describes it as something that “fell into our laps.”

“I had just come off of a particularly successful tour of Brazil, and my manager said maybe we should take another look at doing another bossa nova record,” Pizzarelli recalled. “Having done one in ‘04, we thought maybe it was time to revisit that.

“I had these duets that I’d done with Daniel Jobim (Jobim’s grandson), and I thought, ‘What could we tie it into?’ Then I saw that it was going to come out on the 50th anniversary.

“It was one of those things that worked out really great and was a fun record to tour,” Pizzarelli said. “It turned out to be a pretty special experience.”

Pizzarelli never met Antônio Carlos Jobim, but he has recorded with musicians who worked with the Brazilian great: Duduka Da Fonseca played drums and percussion on “Sinatra & Jobim”; Paulinho Braga played drums on Pizzarelli’s 2004 album “Bossa Nova.”

“With the bossa nova, I made sure that I listened first,” Pizzarelli said. “That’s the way that I learned music from my father — literally: I sat next to my dad and he’d play melodies, I’d listen, and I’d try to play chords. … It was all ear training.”

Observing an artist at work is an approach that works for Pizzarelli. “In the case of the bossa nova, listening to (guitarist) João Gilberto on the ‘Amaroso’ album, and hearing how he played to get the approach of his guitar, was the big thing for me.”

PIZZARELLI ACTUALLY toured with Frank Sinatra, in 1993. Pizzarelli and his original trio, including brother and bass player Martin Pizzarelli and pianist Ray Kennedy, were the opening act.

Their introduction was memorable.

“I met him before a show on Berlin, Germany,” Pizzarelli said.

“He shook my hand. I said ‘It’s nice to meet you, sir,’ and he said, ‘Eat something. You look bad.’”

Apparently, that was Sinatra being Sinatra.

Pizzarelli added that Sinatra took an interest in them.

“He’d be in the wings watching us, because he was literally going to come right out right after we finished.

“We always finished with ‘Sing Sing Sing’ (a song Sinatra had recorded years previously), and we’d finish with a flourish.

“He’d come out right after us and say, ‘The show’s over folks. Those guys were great. I don’t even know why I’m here.’ He was very sweet about doing that.”