Jazz pianist and composer Francesco Crosara will perform as part of the First Sunday Concerts series at Waterfront Park Community Center in April.
Crosara will be joined by bassist Osama Afifi and drummer Jeff Busch. The program will feature Francesco’s original compositions in a blend of Jazz, Latin, and World music, plus select jazz standards.
The concert is 4 p.m. Sunday, April 7.
Born in Milan, Italy, and residing in the Pacific Northwest since 2017, Crosara is a jazz pianist, composer and educator who has played at festivals and venues across the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, and Italy.
He has performed with Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Hargrove, Richie Cole, Bobby Shew, Ira Sullivan, Don Menza, John Heard, Gabe Baltazar, Mayuto Correa, Bruce Forman, Barbara Morrison, Earl Palmer, Mark Lewis, and more.
Francesco has produced six jazz albums recorded internationally over the course of two decades, featuring guest artists such as Von Freeman and Lilian Terry. His album “Colors” received four stars from Downbeat magazine.
Francesco’s mother, Lilian Terry, was one of Europe’s foremost jazz vocalists across four decades. Also a TV/radio personality, and educator in Italy, she recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, and with Tommy Flanagan, and co-founded the Dizzy Gillespie Popular School of Music in Bassano, Italy. Lilian’s memoirs, “Dizzy, Duke, Brother Ray, and Friends,” (2017-University of Illinois Press) received a highly positive review from Downbeat magazine and others.
A master of jazz improvisation, Francesco’s piano style mixes a strong romantic vein from his classical training at the Music Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome with bouncy lyrical expression in the jazz and Latin idioms. He feels equally at ease as a solo pianist and sharing the stage with fellow musicians on both acoustic and electric keyboards.
His favorite format is the jazz piano trio for the intimacy that it creates, and the subtle interplay with bass and drums.
Afifi has been a professional bassist since the early 1980s. He has recorded and performed live with many artists including John Densmore, Kurt Elling, The Cadillacs, Eric Reed, The 5th Dimension, Yanni, Jeff Lorber, Vanessa Paradis, Mindi Abair, Jeff Kashiwa, Billy Preston, Nenna Freelon, The B Sharp Jazz Quartet and has even appeared on VH1’s show “Storytellers” with The Doors.
Since moving to the Pacific Northwest from Los Angeles he has worked with LaVon Hardison, The Tacoma Symphony, Darelle Holden, Jacqueline Tabor, Judy Collins, Kareem Kandi, Darren Motamedy, David Keys, Hook Me Up, Gail Pettis, Michael Powers, Wally and the Beaves, Michael Benson and many others. His education includes studies at the Dick Grove School of Music. He also studied with Jeff Berlin and Gary Willis.
Busch is an exuberant drummer/percussionist, vocalist, and composer whose passion for soulful music of varied traditions has led him to perform with jazz, gospel, samba and Cuban ensembles. In addition, he is committed to exploring the vital interconnection between musicians and dancers.
Busch has spent the last 20 years in Seattle drumming for two-time Latin Grammy winner Carlos Cascante from Costa Rica, as well as three-time Latin Grammy nominee, Jovino Santos Neto of Brazil.
For information and tickets, visit www.brownpapertickets.com
