Originally from Rome, Italy, pianist Francesco Crosara now lives on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington, where he moved in 2017.
"Pacific Northwest, it has that spark, that genuine feel, acceptance. I mean, everyone is real, and it's just a wonderful place. Weather could be better, but it's a small price to pay," Crosara said.
Crosara was celebrating his new album of trio recordings, Circular Motion, when he visited the KNKX Studios in Seattle in 2024.
Circular Motion includes songs Crosara's written in his travels around the world over the last 40 years. His KNKX session featured Farko Dosumov on bass, D'Vonne Lewis on drums, and Alexey Nikolaev on saxophone.
"I hadn't met Alexey yet when we recorded, and so had I met him, then I would have said, 'Oh, you know what, let's do a quartet,'" said Crosara.
Crosara has immersed himself in the community on the Kitsap Peninsula, across the Puget Sound and directly west of Seattle. He's on the board of directors at Bremerton's Music Discovery Center, a nonprofit music education and performance organization.
"It is underserved, honestly. So, look at Bremerton, Silverdale, Olalla, or Kingston; there is definitely the need to be able to develop music," he said.
His first musical love was classical music. Although his talent was clear, Crosara explained that he wasn't cut out for music that required him to stick to the written page.
"Now I realize that I was improvising, that I always wanted to embellish, to do way more than what the composers expected and what my teacher expected. So, long story short, abandoned classical, although you can probably hear some classical influence big time, so I'm eternally grateful," Crosara said.
It seems Crosara was meant to play jazz. As a boy in Italy, he was surrounded by legends of the style. His mother was a radio and television producer in Rome, who often worked with touring jazz stars from the U.S., and sometimes she brought them home to meet little Francesco.
"You name it: Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Abbey Lincoln, and on and on. And of course, having that Italian feel she would invite them over for dinner, and she would cook. And I mean, ultimately, I had the pleasure to basically see and interact with these giants at the kitchen table, just talking story, just being normal people," Crosara said.
He kept playing piano and writing music, but Crosara ended up making his living working in the technology world, which took him to Los Angeles, Hawaii, and in 2017, to Washington. Five years later, he retired to finally focus on his music.
"So, I can afford to just do music for the sake of art, and not because I need to make a living. I'll also play with kids. I'm not hoity toity at all. It's important to be able to connect with the community," Crosara said.
He may be retired from his technology work, but Crosara clearly has much more music career ahead of him.
Songs heard in this episode:
- "Preludio Flamenco"
- "Julia's Tango"
- "One Day Honey, One Day Onions"
