Francesco Crosara

Jazz pianist/composer

SUMMARY

Francesco Crosara is a Seattle based Italian jazz pianist, composer and educator performing in a variety of formations. Crosara’s original music melds an impressive mix of jazz improvisation, a romantic vein from his classical Conservatory training in Rome, bouncy lyrical expression along with strong Latin influences. His main jazz piano influences are Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, and Herbie Hancock.

Crosara stands among the European-bred jazz greats, performing over the years with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Freddie Hubbard, Roy Hargrove, Richie Cole, Bobby Shew, Ira Sullivan, Don Menza, Von Freeman, John Heard, Gabe Baltazar, Mayuto Correa, Bruce Forman, Barbara Morrison, Earl Palmer, Lilian Terry, and more. His recordings have featured a multicultural and international array of musicians. He has performed at festivals and venues across the USA, Japan, Canada, Mexico, France, Spain, and Italy.

Since 2017, the Pacific Northwest can claim Crosara’s talents, too. His acoustic trio was selected to perform at the 2021 Earshot Jazz Festival in Seattle, and Crosara’s creations were featured in the trend-setting series Earshot Jazz: The Second Century (2019 and 2020) for their bold and innovative music composition and video editing work. Equally adept with acoustic and electric jazz concepts, Crosara routinely headlines trios and quartets with the area top musicians.

Crosara’s latest CD project, “Circular Motion”, released in 2024 by Origin/OA2 Records, features all original material including fresh interpretations of some of his earlier repertoire, which was composed over a period of 40 years. Crosara has produced 6 additional international jazz albums over the last three decades ranging from straight-ahead to fusion and Latin, and featuring guest artist, Chicago tenor sax legend Von Freeman, plus Lilian Terry, Dave Marr, Rusty Jones, Paulinho Garcia, Dean Taba, Noel Okimoto, Yasushi Gonjo, Larry Marshall, Miles Jackson, Eric Kurtz, and more. Crosara’s 2000 album “Colors” received 4 stars from Down Beat magazine.

Crosara also serves on the Board of Directors of the Music Discovery Center (MDC), a non-profit organization based in Bremerton, WA, dedicated to creating an inclusive space for community members to experience, explore, and contribute to the world of music through education, performance, and mentorship.

MUSIC EDUCATION AND INFLUENCES

Born in Milan and raised in Rome, Italy, Francesco was exposed to jazz and classical music at an early age. His mother, Lilian Terry, one of Europe’s foremost jazz singers for four decades, was also a TV producer, radio broadcaster, and educator. Lilian organized concerts/master classes in Italy and conducted interviews for RAI with some of the most respected figures in American jazz, who also became close friends. Some of them were highly influential on Francesco’s artistic development through the years, especially Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, Chick Corea, Eumir Deodato, and Dizzy Gillespie. In the early eighties, Lilian recorded two album projects, with Dizzy Gillespie, and with Tommy Flanagan, respectively, 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.

In the seventies, Francesco studied Classical Piano, Music Theory & Composition at the Conservatory of Music Santa Cecilia in Rome. Given the absence of a jazz curriculum, after 3 years Francesco transferred to the Conservatory of Frosinone to specialize in Jazz Harmony, Composition and Improvisation under the guidance of maestro Gerardo Iacoucci.

In 1981 he attended USC in Los Angeles where he became a permanent member of the USC jazz big band through his college years. Main music influences were family friends Dizzy Gillespie and Chick Corea.

Piano style influences: Chick Corea, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Oscar Peterson, McCoy Tyner, Joe Zawinul.

Other jazz influences: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Weather Report, Return To Forever, John McLaughlin, Pat Metheny.

OTHER EDUCATION / PROFESSIONAL CAREER

Alongside his music engagements, Crosara pursued a decades long career in Information Technology focusing on consulting services for business applications at large international enterprises. His business qualifications include a B.S. in Business Administration at USC in Los Angeles (1984) and a M.B.A. at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu (1994).

Crosara is now retired from the corporate workforce, and focusing full time on the composition, production and performance of the music he loves.