Anthony D’Alessandro Quartet ft. Benny Benack III
Anthony D’Alessandro
Anthony D’Alessandro is a pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader based in Toronto, Canada. Hailed by the WholeNote Magazine as a pianist with a “natural feeling for swing and groove” and “scintillating technique”, he has performed in many notable clubs, concert halls and jazz festivals around the world including the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Teatro Nescafé de las Artes in Santiago Chile, Smalls Jazz Club in New York City, and Koerner Hall in Toronto. He regularly performs alongside a “who’s who” of Canada’s top jazz musicians including Caity Gyorgy, Neil Swainson, Terry Clarke, Pat LaBarbara, and Ernesto Cervini, and has performed or toured with many notable NYC based musicians including Benny Benack III, Summer Camargo, Alexander Claffy, and Joe Farnsworth.
D’Alessandro’s debut full length album Searchin’ (2024), featuring NYC based trumpeter and vocal star Benny Benack III, debuted to critical acclaim, being called an “uplifting and feel-good jazz record” by the Paris Move, and a “gem of an album” by Jersey Jazz Magazine. His composition Tune for Monty was selected for CBC Music’s prestigious “Songs You Need to Hear” list.
D’Alessandro’s music has taken him throughout Canada, the United States and Europe. He has performed at many of Canada’s most prestigious jazz festivals and concert venues including Koerner Hall in Toronto, the Ottawa Jazz Festival, and the Vancouver Jazz Festival, among others. He has also performed at the International Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa, the Snowbirds Extravaganza Festival in Lakeland, Florida, and presented his compositions at the Casalmaggiore International Music Festival in Casalmaggiore, Italy.
D’Alessandro frequently works as the pianist for two-time JUNO award winning vocalist Caity Gyorgy, and has toured Canada from coast to coast as part of Gyorgy’s acclaimed quartet. This group made their Koerner Hall debut in April 2024 and has performed at every major jazz festival in the country. His playing can be heard on Gyorgy’s latest release “Hello, How Are You?”
D’Alessandro has spent time living and studying in New York City under master pianist/organist Mike LeDonne, and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto where he studied under award winning pianists David Braid, Mark Eisenman and David Restivo.
Benny Benack III
By age 33, Emmy-nominated Trumpeter and Vocalist Benny Benack III has already become a leading voice in Jazz for his generation, headlining clubs and festivals around the world on the heels of his latest critically acclaimed album “Third Time’s the Charm” which ascended to #2 on the JazzWeek International Radio Charts in 2023. He is the rare talent who is just as formidable as a fiery trumpeter ranging from Freddie Hubbard to Louis Armstrong and everyone in between, while as a singer he delivers sly, mature, naturally expressive post Sinatra vocal stylings.
His sophomore album “A Lot of Livin’ to Do” (2020) featured the likes of bass luminary Christian McBride, achieving 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 double-threat credentials were first apparent when he was a finalist in the 2014 Thelonius Monk Competition on trumpet, and then won Third Place in the 2021 Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition. His resume for both was recently bolstered in Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll for 2023, 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, with a never-ending intercontinental schedule that reflects his indefatigable love for the music, with his smile and panache on full-display wherever it takes him next.
This show is part of The Strictly Jazz Series at The Bassment.