Axel Tosca’s Cuban Jam
Zinc Bar82 West 3rd Street, New York 10012
Axel Tosca’s Cuban Jam brings the Axel Tosca Trio together with Xiomara Laugart for the holiday-night edition of Zinc Bar’s weekly Thursday series. The program joins Cuban music from the 1950s through today with Tosca’s approach to modern jazz, swing, and bebop. Laugart, Tosca’s mother, has performed Cuban nueva trova, jazz standards, and Broadway material, making this a family collaboration as well as a recurring jam built around Cuban song and jazz interplay.
Tosca is a Cuban pianist and three-time Grammy nominee whose music blends jazz, classical, hip-hop, and Afro-Cuban rhythms. Born into a musical family, he was performing by age seven and studied with jazz musician Miriam Valdez. His collaborators have included Roy Hargrove, The Roots, and George Clinton. At Zinc, his weekly jam is presented as a forum for collaborations with jazz artists alongside his own virtuosic playing. Laugart has taken Cuban nueva trova, standards, and Broadway numbers to local and international stages; here, her repertoire meets her son’s modern jazz vocabulary.
Zinc Bar offers a richly textured experience where the past and present of jazz converge in a single, dimly lit room adorned with Art Deco details like velvet upholstery, polished brass, and a Parisian zinc bar. The venue’s layout centers around a close-up stage and a vintage bar, creating a setting where the music is both the focus and a shared journey. Patrons can expect expertly crafted cocktails alongside performances that range from world-class jazz to vibrant Brazilian and African rhythms, often featuring multiple sets and occasional late-night jams. The seating is lounge-style, encouraging attentive listening rather than casual chatter, making it a place to immerse fully in the sound. This is a space where history lingers, once hosting legends like Billie Holiday and Thelonious Monk, now continuing their legacy with a sophisticated yet welcoming vibe.