Jazz Ain't Dead "Halloween Edition" Boogie Man Swing Commemorative Program 2021

Axel Tosca, Music Director/Keys
Cuban-born, Grammy-nominated pianist Axel
Tosca is a dynamic performer known for his genrebending
mix of Jazz, Latin, and Timba music. Born
in Cuba in 1983, Tosca grew up in a prestigious
musical family. His mother is renowned Trova
singer Xiomara Laugart and his father, folk singerguitarist
Alberto Tosca. Introduced to guitar at age
four, Tosca was also playing piano by age seven
and soon joined his parents on-stage playing his first
show at Casa de las Americas. Along with
performing with his parents, he attended music
school. One of his teachers was Miriam Valdez, the
daughter of Cuban piano legends Bebo Valdez and
sister of Chucho Valdez. With this first-class
education, it enabled him to gain a wide range of
experiences playing with groups like Dennis &
Swing, the Afro-Cuban All-Stars, Bobby
Carcases, Teresa Garcia Caturla, Jose Miguel
Crego, and more. Along with classical music, jazz,
and Latin traditions, he also discovered hip-hop and
played with The Roots when they toured Cuba.
While in Cuba Tosca not only played with these legends but had won multiple piano
competitions before moving to the United States in 2005 as part of the Havana Nights revue that
played for two years at the world-famous Stardust Casino and Resort, in Las Vegas. His education
did not stop there, and he soon enrolled in the jazz department at the New School for Jazz and
Contemporary Music. Later, in 2011, he joined Jazz Ain’t Dead, a live music and dance production
group, as pianist for the Joyce SoHo run and has continued to perform with the show and creating
new rep until present. Since being based in New York, he has earned plaudits playing in clubs as a
solo artist as well as with (U)nity, a richly cross-pollinated jazz band in which he is a founding
member.
In 2016, he released his debut album, the eponymous Axel Tosca. Included were guest appearances
by his Mother, vocalist Xiomara Laugart, trumpeter Keyon Harold, saxophonist Ron Blake,
drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, bassist James Genus, percussionist Luisito Quintero, and others. In 2019
Tosca, a former founding member of (U)nity, performed to a sold-out audience at Tokyo's Blue Note.
Currently, Tosca has worked with George Clinton, BeBe Winans, The Clark Sisters, DJ / Producer /
Remixer's Louie Vega and David Morales, Stretch & Bobbito, Mae-Sun, Steve Gadd, Ray Chew,
Lenny White, Pino Palladino, Giovanni Hidalgo, Jocelyn Brown, Karren Wheeler, Monique Bingham,
Godwin Lewis and J Balvin and Bad
Bunny. Most recently, he was honored for his
piano artistry with two Grammy nominations
one for Louie Vega’s 2017 roots mix, “Can’t
Let You Go” and, the other for Louie Vega’s
2020 remix of “Praying For You.”
Influenced by a wide range of musical
experiences growing up in Cuba, there is no
limit for this visionary pianist.