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Tommaso Starace

Tommaso Starace was born in Milan in 1975 from an Italian father and Australian mother. He started playing the alto saxophone at the age of 18.

In 1994 he took part in a weekly jazz seminar organised by Berklee College of Music, taking place in Perugia as part of the ‘Umbria Jazz Festival’ and in that same year he was accepted at the Birmingham Conservatoire where he graduated with a BMus first class honours degree. During those 4 years of college he studied with saxophonists Andrew Tweed, Chris Gumbley and Nigel Wood both classical and jazz repertoire. In the summer of 1996 he took part in the Jamey Aebersold Summer Camp in Kentuky and had the chance of performing and studying with saxophonist Don Braden and Jazz Educators David Baker.

Between the years 1999/2000 he completed the Postgraduate Jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. While attending the course he studied with ex-Jazz Messengers saxophonist Jean Toussaint, and saxophonists Stan Sulzman and Martin Hathaway; he performed in small combos and big bands with Billy Cobham, David Liebman, Kenny Wheeler and Norma Winstone. He also took part in several master classes some of which with renown jazz musicians such as saxophonist Tim Garland and bass virtuoso John Patitucci.

Across the years, since successfully completing his Postgraduate course, Tommaso has gained a considerable reputation in the Uk jazz scene appearing at many jazz clubs and Festivals with his Quintet. Some of the venues include :

Purcell Room - Queen Elizabeth Hall, Pizza Express Dean Street, The ‘Vortex’ Jazz Club, The 100 Club, Pizza on the Park, Royal Festival Hall Foyer, Boxford Fleece Jazz Club, Plymouth Jazz Club, Bonington Theatre, Jazz in the Streets Festival ( concert in Trafalgar Square), Bexley Heath Jazz Club, National Theatre, Jazz at The Green Man, Derenham Jazz Club, Quay arts Centre, Milestone Jazz Club, Gumbles Jazz Club, National Portrait Gallery, Capital Gardens Jazz Festival, Chelsea Festival, Windsor Festival, St Ives jazz Club, St Davids hall - Cardiff, Drill Hall - Lincoln, Swanage Jazz Festival, Southampton Jazz club, Swansea Jazzland, Royal Parks Summer jazz concert series, Grimsby Jazz Club, Schmazz Jazz at the Cluny, Norwich Arts Centre, Colchester Arts Centre, Restormel arts Jazz series - Cornwall, Chichester Jazz Club, Brighton Jazz Club, Three Players Theatre Thame, The Crypt jazz Club - London, Derby Jazz Club, Birmingham Symphony Hall Jazz Foyer, Posk Jazz Cafe', Royal Albert hall Jazz Ignite, Lichfield Arts Centre.

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Album Review

Tommaso Starace: Narrow Escape

Read "Narrow Escape" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Com'è noto Tommaso Starace opera prevalentemente nel Regno Unito, dove s'è trasferito a 19 anni diplomandosi al conservatorio di Birmingham e poi conseguendo il master alla Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Da allora è trascorso un ventennio e oggi il sassofonista è tra i migliori jazzmen d'oltremanica, con all'attivo alcuni dischi da leader e decine di esibizioni in festival con propri gruppi o con i migliori colleghi britannici. In questa nuova incisione Starace presenta l'harmony less quartet ...

1
Album Review

Tommaso Starace Harmony Less Quartet: Narrow Escape

Read "Narrow Escape" reviewed by Roger Farbey


This highly engaging set was recorded at Only Music Studio in Turin, Italy on 23 and 24 January 2018 but was mixed and mastered in Bexley, Kent the following July. Saxophonist Tommaso Starace has a solid connection with the UK having studied at Birmingham Conservatoire where he graduated with a BMus first class honours degree. Starace, who was born in Milan in 1975, completed his postgraduate jazz studies at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama between 1999 and 2000. ...

Album Review

Tommaso Starace with Michele Di Toro: From a Distant Past

Read "From a Distant Past" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Abbastanza classico nell'impianto -quello del duo tra sax e pianoforte, dall'approccio marcatamente melodico e dal dialogo sostanzialmente cameristico -From a Distant past è un lavoro che deve la propria brillantezza alla virtuosa interazione delle sensibilità dei suoi due protagonisti: il pianista Michele Di Toro e il sassofonista Tommaso Starace. Cifra melodica e narrativa, dettata soprattutto dalle linee del sax, grande varietà armonica, questa nelle mani del pianista, sviluppate su composizioni in gran parte originali -cinque di Starace, due ...

Album Review

Tommaso Starace: Italian Short Stories

Read "Italian Short Stories" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Il sassofonista Tommaso Starace divide la sua attività artistica tra l'Italia, la Svizzera e l'Inghilterra ma è più conosciuto nel Paese d'Oltremanica, dove s'è trasferito nel 1994 all'età di 19 anni, perfezionando i suoi studi al Birmingham Conservatoire e alla Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Ha al suo attivo cinque album da leader e collaborazioni con Billy Cobham, Dave Liebman, Kenny Wheeler, Stan Sulzmann e altri. Qui Starace conferma la sua connessione con le arti visive, ...

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Album Review

Tommaso Starace: Italian Short Stories

Read "Italian Short Stories" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Some musicians appear to conjure their tunes from thin air, others work with raw material furnished by the great composers, still others take their inspirations from many different sources and give them due acknowledgement. Saxophonist Tommaso Starace is in the latter camp. This lyrical, engaging, player's second album, Tommaso Starace Plays The Photos Of Elliot Erwitt (Frame Records, 2006), drew on eight photographs by this master of the camera. For Italian Short Stories Starace returns to this source of inspiration. ...

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Live Review

Tommaso Starace Quartet al Circolo del Jazz di Verona

Read "Tommaso Starace Quartet al Circolo del Jazz di Verona" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Circolo del Jazz Castelvecchio --Verona 24.04.2014 Giunto al tredicesimo anno di attività consecutiva il Circolo del Jazz di Verona prosegue la sua pregevole attività di valorizzazione e promozione di musicisti emergenti, ospitando anche jazzmen di prima grandezza. È ancora fresco il ricordo dei concerti di Simona Severini, del Wood Quartet o del trio Beccalossi-Guiducci-Bombardieri che nella sala concerti di Castelvecchio è giunto il quartetto del sassofonista Tommaso Starace con Michele Di ...

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Album Review

Tommaso Starace: Simply Marvellous

Read "Simply Marvellous" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay


Saxophonist Tommaso Starace is not a man to keep his influences hidden, nor does he simply take inspiration from the saxophone greats. The tunes on Plays The Music Of Elliott Erwitt (Frame, 2006) were inspired by a series of pictures from one great photographer; another, Robert Capa, inspired the title track of Blood And Champagne (Music Center Real, 2011). The gorgeous Simply Marvellous celebrates the life and work of another of Starace's favorites, the much-admired and loved pianist Michel Petrucciani ...

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'Anyone who has experienced a glissando of language on the streets of Italy will understand the utter exuberance with which Italian-born Starace attacks and runs with the language of music'. (by Paul Medley 14/10/2009 The Oxford Times)

‘Starace's melodious originals offer good blowing potencial for alto and soprano solos delivered in a cleanly articulate post-bop style reminiscent of ,   Phil Woods'. ( Jack Massarik, Jazzwise, April 2006)

  ‘The promising Starace seems to be revealing his most personal voice in the full-on music’. John Fordham, The Guardian, August, 2006

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