Francesco Cafiso (born 24 May 1989) is an Italian jazz alto saxophonist.
Cafiso was born in Sicily[1] on 24 May 1989.[2] He was successful musically from a young age: he played duets with pianist Franco D'Andrea at the 2002 Umbria Jazz Festival,[3] toured Europe with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis at the age of 14,[4] made his playing debut in the United States in 2004[5] and the following year recorded the album A Tribute to Charlie Parker with orchestral backing.[4] Part of a concert with D'Andrea at the 2002 Pescara Jazz Festival was later released as the album Standing Ovation Pescara.[6] He went on to record the studio album New York Lullaby for Venus Records at the age of 16.[7] This was followed by Portrait in Black and White and Seven Steps to Heaven, which were quartet albums for the same label.[8][9][10] He recorded his eighth album as leader, Angelica, at the age of 19; it was released by CAM Jazz.[11] In 2011, Verve Records released his Moody'n, which was bebop-based and was judged by some critics to be well executed but illustrative of Cafiso's lack of innovation.[4]
For the following three years Cafiso did not record and toured much less than before.[4] He re-emerged with a new band that was influenced by Sicilian music yet retained jazz sensibilities, and released the three-CD recording 3.[4] Much of the music was written by Cafiso, which was also a change from his earlier career.[4] He attributed some of his musical change to switching from a Selmer Mark VI to a Selmer Reference 54: "The new saxophone is more rigid. It doesn't respond immediately. In looking how to adjust my playing to this new instrument, I found my new sound."[4]
