Jazz great John Pizzarelli brought his cool jazz stylings to the Thomasville Center for the Arts Thursday evening, leaving toes tapping and heads bobbing in the fourth installment of Thomasville Entertainment Foundation’s 79th concert series.

Flying in from New York just in time to avoid the massive winter storm cancellations, the acclaimed guitarist-vocalist rounded out his stellar quartet with Konrad Paszkudzki on piano, Paul Keller on bass and Kevin Kanner on drums.

Headliner Pizzarelli showed great range, easily shifting gears from smooth, relaxed tempos and subtle tones in songs like “The Hungry Man” and “We Three” into bold, emphatic vocals and scat in pieces like “Route 66” and “When There’s a Shine on Your Shoes.”

Pizzarelli even showed off his artistry on his seven-string jazz guitar — which he was taught to play by his father, the legendary guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli — noting the innovative addition of low “A” to the traditional six stringed instrument.

Other highlights of the 90-minute show were a sublime arrangement of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” where each musician enjoyed an improvizational moment in the spotlight, a splendorous Bossa Nova-flavored “Silly Long Songs” by Paul McCartney and a poignant solo turn for Pizzarelli in “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific.”

A double-tempo encore of Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” showcased Pizzarelli’s dual talents in an amazing guitar solo and dynamic scat vocals, pushing the quartet to its musical limits.

Pizzarelli’s casual, easy, even self-deprecating demeanor was refreshing and unexpected for a performer of his renown, and he peppered the evening with delightful anecdotes from a long career that has found him in collaboration and recording partnerships with some of the world’s greatest musicians of many genres, among them McCartney, Diana Krall and the Boston Pops.

The young Paszkudzki was phenomenal throughout the concert, always employing the perfect touch for every composition. Sometimes light and subtle, sometimes bold and dizzying, his fingerwork on TEF’s historic Steinway concert grand was mesmerizing. Never still at the keyboard, the New York-based Australian native — who entered university studies in jazz piano at age 15 — seemed transcendently transported from another era, the golden age of jazz and its club scene of the 1940s.

Keller was equally impressive, providing a rich foundation for the quartet, with Pizzarelli often stepping aside to let him display both his technical excellence and his improvisational artistry on the bass.

His amazing fretwork and fast fingering were a thing of beauty

Kanner was a master on drums, his steady tempo and interpretive beats setting the pace throughout.

Even during fiery, flashy percussion solos — where he incredibly alternated between drumsticks and bare hands to great effect — Kanner never overwhelmed the hall’s bright, live acoustics. And that’s not an easy accomplishment in the center’s intimate space.

The evening of cool jazz was sublime! If any audience members weren’t moved to tap, snap or bob along Thursday night, I can suggest an excellent hospital on Gordon Avenue they might need to check into.

TEF’s 2016-17 series continues Feb. 28 with Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, with an all-Bach program on period instruments that includes three of his Brandenburg Concertos — Nos. 3, 4 and 5 — as well as the Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and the Allemande from Cello Suite No. 6. For ticket information, log onto www.TEFconcerts.com or call 229-226-7404.