December 9-16, 2004

musicpicks

Peter Cincotti

by Nicole Pensiero

jazz

Jazz wunderkind Peter Cincotti isn't out for world domination, but he does appear to be everywhere at once. His second album, On The Moon, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz charts. He's got a big role in the new Bobby Darin biopic, Beyond The Sea, opening this weekend. Come January, the fresh-faced piano wiz takes over Adrien Brody's high-profile gig as spokesmodel for the Zegna fashion line.

Oh, and he's only 21.

"There are so many things I want do, I just hope I can do it all in one lifetime," he says. "When I actually stop and think about it, how fast things are moving—well, it just hits you in the face."

Cincotti began playing piano at age 3, and by age 5 was turned on to the boogie-woogie playing style of Jerry Lee Lewis. At 17, he performed at the Montreaux Jazz Festival and was still a teenager when he recorded his first album.

While he can't compete vocally with, say, silky-voiced crooners like Michael Bublé or Jamie Cullum, he's got a truckload of panache and a passionate playing style, and he's evolving into a decent songwriter, too.

"If I had to put my music in a genre, I wouldn't consider it jazz at all but I want to take the freedom that comes from jazz, and let it help me do anything I want," he says. Which includes bending the Great American Songbook into some interesting shapes—including a bluesy, updated take on South Pacific's "Bali Ha'i" and "St. Louis Blues" reimagined as urban, sophisto-funk. Cincotti says he's determined to turn standards into "something new and exciting" while retaining their original spirit.

Sun., Dec. 12, 8 p.m., $25-$27, TLA, 334 South St., 215-922-1011.