October 21, 2003
Contact: Susan Gwynne
(805) 893-2098
e-mail: gwynne-s@sa.ucsb.edu

Best-selling jazz singer and pianist Peter Cincotti makes his Santa Barbara debut at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• Peter Cincotti
• Singer-pianist whose debut CD tops the Jazz Charts
• 20-year-old phenomenon who has won great critical acclaim
• Monday, November 24 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General: $35/$30, UCSB students: $19/$16
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535

Jazz sensation Peter Cincotti, a 20-year-old singer and pianist who The New York Times claims is “going on legend,” will make his Santa Barbara debut on Monday, November 24 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. Cincotti’s eponymous debut has topped the jazz charts, outselling CDs by Tony Bennett, Diana Krall and Natalie Cole. Blending a voice recalling a young Sinatra with an accomplished piano style that echoes Errol Garner and Fats Waller, Cincotti (pronounced sin-COT-tea) is a jazz artist of unlimited potential, copious charm and an innate entertainer’s soul. Cincotti will be accompanied by a trio featuring Scott Kreitzer on tenor saxophone, Barak Mori on acoustic bass and Mark McLean on drums. The Seattle Times writes, “Cincotti has the music goods to justify the hype....As an avid jazz pianist and deft retro-crooner, the kid is all right. In fact, he’s just swell.”

In the spring of 2001, Cincotti became the youngest jazz artist to perform at the prestigious Oak Room in New York City’s Algonquin Hotel, one of the prime venues for cabaret-style singers. Such success was nothing new for the prodigy, who had won an award at Switzerland’s illustrious Montreux Jazz Festival the year before—at age 16—for his piano rendition of the Dizzy Gillespie standard “A Night in Tunisia.” Cincotti started playing a toy piano at age three and graduated to the real thing about a year later. When he was seven years old, he was brought onstage by Harry Connick, Jr. to play a few tunes; Cincotti became a protege of the jazz musician by the time he was 13. While Cincotti is often compared to his mentor, People magazine has asserted he is already “all the singer and twice the piano player Connick is without all the look-how-cool-I-am attitude.”

Born and raised in Manhattan, at the age of nine Cincotti began composing and in his mid-teens he added vocals to his act. He has studied piano with jazz masters such as Ellis Marsalis (father of Wynton and Branford), James Williams, Cliff Korman, LeeAnn Ledgerwood and Fred Hersch. He was so accomplished that as a teen he went to high school by day and performed in clubs at night, most famously a regular gig at the jazz club/steakhouse the Knickerbocker. At one of those performances he was approached by the producer of the off-Broadway show Our Sinatra to join the cast of that revue, a tribute to Ol’ Blue Eyes. Cincotti’s run in that show led to further comparisons between his vocal stylings and Sinatra’s.

It was a gig at Feinstein’s in New York’s Regency Hotel that connected him with legendary record producer Phil Ramone, whose list of credits includes Sinatra and Paul Simon. The always-in-demand Ramone has rarely offered to work with an artist after hearing him only once, but has claimed, “I just fell in love that night. It was so good; it was like a Hollywood ending. I walked over to him and I said, ‘If you haven’t signed a deal and you would like to, I would like to help you.’” The best-selling CD on the esteemed Concord label that the two recorded evinces Cincotti’s youth, with a version of the Muppets song “Rainbow Connection,” his respect for the past with a Fats Waller-ish “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” and his talent to re-invent seemingly ordinary pop with a take on Blood, Sweat and Tears’ “Spinning Wheel” that is his tribute to Erroll Garner. The CD also point to the future with a few self-penned tunes such as the catchy “I Changed the Rules” that charmingly have lyrical assists from his mother.

Cincotti is also beginning a career in film, as he is set to appear in the upcoming sequel Spider-Man II as well as in Kevin Spacey’s long-anticipated Beyond the Sea. In Spacey’s film, Cincotti will play the arranger for singer Bobby Darin, famous for his recording of “Mack the Knife.”

Read about Peter Cincotti on his website www.concordrecords.com/petercincotti.

Peter Cincotti is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Casa Santa Barbara, KCLU Public Radio, Hotel Santa Barbara and Borders Books. Tickets are $35 and $30 for the general public and $19 and $16 for UCSB students.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.