Francesco Cafiso (born 24 May 1989) is an Italian jazz alto saxophonist.
Cafiso was born in Sicily [1] on 24 May 1989. [2] He was successful musically from a young age: he played duets with pianist Franco D'Andrea at the 2002 Umbria Jazz Festival, [3] toured Europe with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis at the age of 14, [4] made his playing debut in the United States in 2004 [5] and the following year recorded the album A Tribute to Charlie Parker with orchestral backing. [4] Part of a concert with D'Andrea at the 2002 Pescara Jazz Festival was later released as the album Standing Ovation Pescara. [6] He went on to record the studio album New York Lullaby for Venus Records at the age of 16. [7] This was followed by Portrait in Black and White and Seven Steps to Heaven, which were quartet albums for the same label. [8] [9] [10] He recorded his eighth album as leader, Angelica, at the age of 19; it was released by CAM Jazz. [11] In 2011, Verve Records released his Moody'n, which was bebop-based and was judged by some critics to be well executed but illustrative of Cafiso's lack of innovation. [4]
For the following three years Cafiso did not record and toured much less than before. [4] He re-emerged with a new band that was influenced by Sicilian music yet retained jazz sensibilities, and released the three-CD recording 3. [4] Much of the music was written by Cafiso, which was also a change from his earlier career. [4] He attributed some of his musical change to switching from a Selmer Mark VI to a Selmer Reference 54: "The new saxophone is more rigid. It doesn't respond immediately. In looking how to adjust my playing to this new instrument, I found my new sound." [4]
