Anthony D’Alessandro is a pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader based in Toronto, Ontario. His own bands have been showcased in many notable venues and festivals across Canada including the Jazz Bistro, the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Jazz Sudbury Festival, and the Rex Hotel Jazz and Blues Bar, among others. He regularly performs alongside a who’s who of Canada’s great jazz musicians including Neil Swainson, Reg Schwager, Caity Gyorgy, Kevin Turcotte, and Ernesto Cervini, and has worked with NYC based musicians such as Benny Benack III, Alexander Claffy and Joe Farnsworth.
Anthony’s music has also taken him throughout the United States and Europe including performances at festivals in Iowa, Florida, New York City, and composition at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Casalmaggiore, Italy. In 2023, Anthony toured Canada from coast to coast with two-time JUNO winning vocalist Caity Gyorgy. Anthony’s debut full length album Searchin’ will be out in April 2024 featuring original music presented by an all-star cast of NYC’s Benny Benack III, Caity Gyorgy, Ernesto Cervini, and Neil Swainson.
By age 32, Emmy-nominated Trumpeter and Vocalist Benny Benack III has already become a leading voice in Jazz for his generation, while his trademark ebullience onstage assures his audiences he’s got “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” still to come! His sophomore album sharing that title featured the likes of bass luminary Christian McBride and drummer/producer Ulysses Owens Jr. and even achieved viral online fame w/his vocalese rendition of “Social Call” ft. Veronica Swift that’s been transcribed and covered by singers around the world. He has crooned his way to millions of more listeners alongside groups such as the Grammy-winning “8-Bit Big Band” and YouTube sensation “Postmodern Jukebox”. His third solo album aptly titled “Third Time’s the Charm” ft. fellow stars Emmet Cohen, Peter Bernstein, and Chad LB was released in June 2023 and quickly ascended to #2 on the JazzWeek International Radio Charts.
His double-threat credentials were first apparent when he was a finalist in the Thelonius Monk Competition on trumpet, and then won Third Place in the 2021 Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition, but his status as a leading voice on both was recently cemented in the 2023 Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll, where he appeared in two categories: The #2 Rising Star Male Vocalist and #15 Rising Star Trumpet. His global recognition has been bolstered by the recent advent of live-streaming concerts, both through his weekly residency at Smalls Jazz Club, as well as frequent appearances at fellow young lion Emmet Cohen’s “Emmet’s Place” online series. He has emerged from the pandemic as one of the most in-demand touring artists in the Jazz world, headlining clubs and festivals internationally with his unique brand of indefatigable panache on full-display wherever the music takes him next.
