Cuban-born pianist Axel Tosca is a dynamic performer known for his genre-bending mix of Jazz, Latin, and Timba music. Tosca was born in Cuba in 1983 and grew up in a prestigious musical family. His mother is renowned Trova singer Xiomara Laugart, and his father is folk singer-guitarist Alberto Tosca.
Introduced to guitar at age four, Tosca played piano by age seven and joined his parents on stage, playing his first show at Casa de las Americas. Along with performing with his parents, he attended music school.
One of his teachers was Miriam Valdez, the daughter of Cuban piano legend Bebo Valdez and sister of Chucho Valdez. This first-class education enabled him to gain many experiences playing with groups like Dennis & Swing, the Afro-Cuban All-Stars, Bobby Carcases, Teresa Garcia Caturla, Jose Miguel Crego, and more. Along with classical music, jazz, and Latin traditions, Tosca discovered hip-hop and played with The Roots when they toured Cuba. While in Cuba, Tosca not only played with these legends but had won multiple piano competitions before moving to the United States in 2005 as part of the Havana Nights revue that played for two years at the world-famous Stardust Casino and Resort in Las Vegas.
His education did not stop there, and he soon enrolled in jazz at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Now based in New York, he has earned plaudits playing in clubs as a solo artist and with (U)nity, a richly cross-pollinated jazz band in which he is a founding member.
In 2016, he released his debut album, the eponymous Axel Tosca. Included were guest appearances by his mother, vocalist Xiomara Laugart, trumpeter Keyon Harold, saxophonist Ron Blake, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, bassist James Genus, percussionist Luisito Quintero, and others. In 2019 Tosca, a former founding member of (U)nity, performed to a sold-out audience at Tokyo’s Blue Note.
Currently, Tosca has worked with George Clinton, BeBe Winans, The Clark Sisters, DJ / Producer / Remixer’s Louie Vega and David Morales, Stretch & Bobbito, Mae-Sun, Steve Gadd, Ray Chew, Lenny White, Pino Palladino, Giovanni Hidalgo, Jocelyn Brown, Karren Wheeler, Monique Bingham, Godwin Lewis and J Balvin and Bad Bunny.
Tosca was influenced by various musical experiences growing up in Cuba. His talent and creativity are boundless.
