For all the derivative tendencies in pop music today, you’d think the kids would have picked up on the most important trait of the old school: to be entertaining! Those interested in a primer on how to give a gin-sipping audience every penny’s worth of their cover charge have two nights to get schooled. John Pizzarelli’s quartet exists to give the audience—not the artist’s ego—what it wants, and that’s fresh interpretations of familiar tunes. Backed by his brother Martin on bass, pianist Larry Fuller, and drummer Tony Tedesco, the guitarist and crooner has made pop-jazz mashups the subject of his latest album, Double Exposure. Yet in pairings like The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine” and Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder,” or Tom Waits’ “Drunk on the Moon” and Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” Pizzarelli renders these old standards with a swing that’s entirely his own. CHRIS KORNELIS

Tue., July 24, 7:30 p.m.; Wed., July 25, 7:30 p.m., 2012