Tommaso Starace’s Organ Trio

Tommaso Starace’s Organ Trio has just released their new album, Live At The Beaver Inn (Dodicilune), earning glowing reviews for its energy, musicianship, and onstage chemistry.

This evening, the Trio celebrates the music of two architects of the hard bop idiom: Horace Silver and Benny Golson. Both leaders of their own groups, Silver and Golson first made their names with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in the mid-1950s. Silver co-founded the Messengers with Blakey, while Golson served as the group’s musical director. Tonight, the Trio will perform some of the most memorable compositions by these two jazz icons.

Born in Milan in 1975, Tommaso Starace began studying the saxophone at the age of 18 before moving to the UK in 1994. He graduated with honours from Birmingham Conservatoire and went on to specialise in jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Throughout his career, Starace has collaborated with many leading international musicians, including Paolo Fresu, Dave O’Higgins, Billy Cobham, David Liebman, Kenny Wheeler, Stan Sulzmann and Laurence Cottle, among many others. In 2004, he also collaborated with Oscar-winning composer Dario Marianelli on the score for the BBC drama This Little Life. In recognition of his contribution to music, he was awarded Honorary Membership of Birmingham Conservatoire in 2008.

A regular performer at international festivals and jazz clubs, Starace has developed an extensive and versatile discography, recording 11 albums to date as a bandleader, with projects ranging from quintet to duo. His work reflects a constant spirit of stylistic exploration, encompassing bebop, Latin influences, funk and sophisticated reinterpretations of the Jazz classics.

His most significant recordings include Simply Marvellous (celebrating the music of Michel Petrucciani), Blood & Champagne, The Power of Three, Narrow Escape and Italian Short Stories, alongside a number of projects paying tribute to influential figures in music and photography.

Tommaso Starace continues to perform regularly in concerts, festivals and productions throughout the UK and across Europe.