Biography
New York native Tony DeSare works as a polished jazz singer, pianist, and composer who merges his affection for the great American songbook with tastes that range across pop and rock. He first surfaced in the early 2000s after guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli took notice, prompting critics to place him alongside fellow traditionalists such as Harry Connick, Jr., John Pizzarelli, and Michael Bublé. Across an array of recordings—among them the 2007 Billboard Jazz chart entry that reached number eight, Last First Kiss, the 2009 set Radio Show, and the 2020 release Lush Life—he proves equally inclined to channel Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole or to interpret material by Prince, New Order, and Carole King.
DeSare entered the world in Glen Falls, New York, in 1976, began studying piano early, and had already logged multiple stage appearances by age seventeen. While enrolled at Ithaca College he kept performing and built a steady audience throughout Upstate New York. After relocating to New York City in 1998 he secured steady work at the Marquis Hotel in Times Square and later took a part in the off-Broadway production Our Sinatra. An impromptu introduction to veteran guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli at the Apollo Theater sparked ongoing collaborations, one of which yielded DeSare’s 2005 Telarc debut album, Want You.
Two years afterward he delivered Last First Kiss, again with Pizzarelli on hand; the record broadened his scope by mixing standards with newer numbers from Prince and Carole King and climbed into the Billboard Jazz Top Ten. He closed his Telarc period with the still-wider 2009 album Radio Show, which ventured into songs by New Order, Philip Bailey, and Bob Dylan. In 2013 he issued the experimental Piano, an album on which every accompanying texture—melodic and rhythmic alike—originated from a single acoustic piano. After a holiday collection in 2015, the vocalist returned with his sixth studio effort, 2020’s Lush Life, recorded in tandem with pianist Tedd Firth.
DeSare entered the world in Glen Falls, New York, in 1976, began studying piano early, and had already logged multiple stage appearances by age seventeen. While enrolled at Ithaca College he kept performing and built a steady audience throughout Upstate New York. After relocating to New York City in 1998 he secured steady work at the Marquis Hotel in Times Square and later took a part in the off-Broadway production Our Sinatra. An impromptu introduction to veteran guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli at the Apollo Theater sparked ongoing collaborations, one of which yielded DeSare’s 2005 Telarc debut album, Want You.
Two years afterward he delivered Last First Kiss, again with Pizzarelli on hand; the record broadened his scope by mixing standards with newer numbers from Prince and Carole King and climbed into the Billboard Jazz Top Ten. He closed his Telarc period with the still-wider 2009 album Radio Show, which ventured into songs by New Order, Philip Bailey, and Bob Dylan. In 2013 he issued the experimental Piano, an album on which every accompanying texture—melodic and rhythmic alike—originated from a single acoustic piano. After a holiday collection in 2015, the vocalist returned with his sixth studio effort, 2020’s Lush Life, recorded in tandem with pianist Tedd Firth.
Albums
