The jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli has worn several hats during a productive career spanning more than three decades – as bandleader, sideman, radio host, songwriter and, recently, author — and continues to do so. Some of his fans might know him for his likable personality and skills as a raconteur almost as much as for his music, but for Pizzarelli, who plays Stateside at the Paramount on Wednesday, it’s all about the music.

Pizzarelli is a true enthusiast of classic American popular song of the pre-rock era — generally known as the Great American Songbook – and in conversing with him one gets the sense that as much as he appreciates his fans, he’d be just as happy to win over converts to this music in general as much as to his work in particular. Unlike certain other latter-day interpreters of the songbook, he doesn’t feel the need to play the star or slavishly re-create decades-old arrangements, and he carries a classic, innately tasteful artistic compass that points to the true north star of the song as king.

When people ask Pizzarelli what sort of music he plays, he’ll likely respond, “Swing jazz in the style of Count Basie, Nat Cole, Oscar Peterson and Benny Goodman. That’s pretty much at the core of what we do.”

But like any jazz musician, he improvises on these themes and makes the songs his own. His latest record, “Double Exposure,” is a mash-up of compositions by closer musical contemporaries — Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, Steely Dan, Neil Young and, yes, the Beatles (“I Feel Fine” crossbred with Lee Morgan’s “The Sidewinder”). In other words, a definite departure from his usual comfort zone. A standout track weaves Tom Waits’s “Drunk on the Moon” seamlessly in and out of the Billy Strayhorn classic “Lush Life,” as if they were always meant to be together.

Pizzarelli, over the phone from his home in New York, describes the record as “my generation seen through the eyes of the jazz generation of the ’50s and ’60s. There’s Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery, Joe Henderson and that kind of stuff. It was a better mix with these songs to move the jazz references up 10 years. You can re-harmonize those songs really well if you need to. It was a fun project.”

Pizzarelli, the New Jersey-bred son of the master rhythm and seven-string guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli (session man extraordinaire, “Tonight Show” Band member in the ’60s), grew up in an atmosphere in which music and musicians were as ever-present as air, water and lunch. “We had so many instruments around the house, and whenever there was a (get-together) in the family there was always music at the end of it,” he recalls. “It was just something that I took to. They gave me a tenor banjo when I was about 6-and-a-half, 7 years old, and I just took it from there.”

He says he’s self-taught as both a singer and a guitarist. “With my father particularly, because we worked together, I was just playing the chords to songs and listening to him play,” he explains. “That was like ear training 101. That’s how we learned. We didn’t sit down and rehearse, we just went on gigs and played for a couple of hours.”

Pizzarelli is now 52, and somewhere along the way has matured from new kid on the block to veteran performer. Along with an extensive repertoire he has more than a few stories in his bag of tricks, which he retails to good effect both onstage and in his breezy and entertaining book, “World on a String,” released last fall. He also hosts a syndicated weekly public radio show, “Radio Deluxe,” with his wife, the singer and actress Jessica Molaskey (unfortunately not broadcast in Austin, but go to www.johnpizzarelli.com/RadioDeluxe.html).

On record, he’s paid tribute to, among others, Sinatra (“Dear Mr. Sinatra”), bossa nova, Duke Ellington (the excellent “Rockin’ in Rhythm”), his idol Nat Cole, and the Beatles (“John Pizzarelli Meets the Beatles,” from 1998). He’s played with everyone from Rosemary Clooney to James Taylor and Paul McCartney (appearing on the latter’s album of standards, “Kisses on the Bottom,” from 2012; yes, he has a story to tell). He and his dad might be making a record later this year with Annie Ross of the ’50s/’60s trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, who at 82 is still actively performing.

Pizzarelli has a warm, friendly vocal style that goes from lighthearted to intimate at turns. His voice is not a stunning pyrotechnical instrument, but his straightforward delivery goes a long way toward making listeners feel he’s singing directly to them. It’s a good voice for New York jazz clubs and cabaret rooms, where the Great American Songbook remains king, and for lovers of that world, wherever they live.

“He’s first and foremost an entertainer,” Bill Moss, Pizzarelli’s longtime recording engineer, says of the bandleader. “Whether you’re steeped in the jazz world or just go on a date, you come out of the show smiling and having a good time. It’s an entertaining show whether you know all of the material. He’s also got a very quick sense of humor and a great wit. (The show is) happening both musically and non-musically; there are a lot of asides, a ton of stories for sure. When it comes to the studio, it’s a lot of the same. Some of the most fun times I’ve ever had in the studio have been working with him.”

Pizzarelli shared memories of seeing Frank Sinatra perform live in the early ’80s, which he seems to treasure as much as opening for the aging legend on a 1993 European tour. “It was striking,” he recalls. “He had lost some speed on his fastball. Still, the whole aura of the place changed when he entered the building. There was something amazing about that guy walking out onto a stage.” (Even if the only thing Sinatra ever said directly to Pizzarelli, when introduced to his opening act, was “Eat something, you look bad!”)

When he made the Sinatra tribute record, one might wonder how he got to the point where he knew the audience wouldn’t be comparing Sinatra’s voice to his own, in their heads.

“That record was made by a band with an arranger for the band, the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra,” he says. “We didn’t try to say ‘Let’s do it like Frank Sinatra,’ like Michael Bublé does ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ and he does the exact same arrangement. I’ve been reviewed where people say, ‘Well, he doesn’t sound anything like Sinatra,’ and you go, ‘That’s not the point.’ The point wasn’t to sound like Sinatra. It was the same thing with the Beatles record.”

Pizzarelli says his audience is diverse. “When (I was) between 10 and 17, I think there was a bigger line between our music and ‘their music,’ in quotes. And now it’s 30 years later, and everybody’s tastes are so eclectic. It may have been one group in 1980 that listened specifically to this music. And now it’s just totally changed, because everything’s changed. Now, everybody listens to everything. They’re teaching jazz in high school, and you can get a degree in it from colleges. You can go on YouTube and see Nat King Cole right off the bat when you’re 15, and they can see me.

“In all phases of what I’ve done,” he adds, “I love that I’ve been able to — all those guys I’ve read (about) in liner notes and have run into a lot of them in the studio — when I finally get a chance to work with them, I try to pay attention as much as possible.”

Pizzarelli’s touring with his longtime quartet, featuring his brother Martin Pizzarelli on double bass, drummer Tony Tedesco, and pianist Larry Fuller.