If a musician is defined by the company he keeps then it’s little wonder that Italian pianist Francesco Turrisi skirts facile categorization.

The Turin-born, Dublin-based musician has played with former Miles Davis reedsman Dave Liebman, flamenco icon Pepe El Habichuela, kaval player Theodosii Spassov and singer extraordinaire Maria Pia de Vito. He is equally at home playing with jazz veteran Gianluigi Trovesi as he is with Irish sean-nós singer Roisin El Safty and with tarantella specialist Lucilla Galeazzi. He has toured with Bobby McFerrin, interpreted the music of Steve Reich with Bang on A Can All Stars and, since 2004, has been a core member of early music ensemble L’ Arpeggiata. And at heart, he is a jazz improviser.

Turrisi, it’s safe to say, is a musical polyglot par excellence and it’s natural that he feels at home in multiple musical settings for his vocabulary is a colorful weave of early music, pan-Mediterranean modal melodies and European flavored jazz.

In spite of his numerous collaborations it’s as a leader that Turrisi has earned his spurs. His four beautifully crafted solo albums and two co-led releases have garnered widespread critical acclaim.
For Turrisi, tradition and improvisation are not different countries but two sides of the same mountain. Turrisi’s musical traditions - formal and folkloric - span the centuries and a large swathe of the history of European migration. This kaleidoscopic vocabulary - always in flux - provides the grist to Turrisi’s improvisational mill and the rough material from which he crafts his uniquely original, haunting music.
His ability to rework ancient melodies and rhythms through a contemporary jazz prism marks him out as one of the most striking voices to have emerged on the European jazz scene in the past decade.