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It takes most jazz musicians decades to hit it big, but Peter Cincotti is 19 and already flirting with legend status. At seven, Harry Connick Jr. pulled him onstage for an impromptu duet. In his teens he was packing in the crowds at the famed Oak Room in New York City, tickling the ivories for patrons like Dustin Hoffman. Even Tony Bennett's a fan: "He said to me, 'I wasn't singing like that when I was 19.' That really was a compliment." Now, with his debut CD freshly pressed, this Columbia University sophomore wants to bring jazz to a new generation of fans more familiar with Good Charlotte than Ray Charles. "One of my sister's friends actually thought I wrote Ain't Misbehavin'," he tells Playboy.com with a chuckle. "It's not that they don't like jazz -- they just haven't been exposed to it."
In honor of Jazz Appreciation Month, we asked Peter to sift through his giant record collection and prime us on his favorite cuts. "I wouldn't want to force it upon anybody, but if you get into it, jazz equals invention, creation and expression," he says. "It's just one of those things -- you either get it or you don't." Peter, we get it. Here are some of his must-haves:
OSCAR PETERSON, NIGHT TRAIN, 1962 - Buy Now
"This was one of the first jazz records I bought. It introduced me to a sound that, at the time, was very new to me. It's one of the records that opened my ears to the world of jazz. The whole sound of the trio appeals to me. In any good trio, it's about the interaction between the piano, the bass and the drums. And this record was the first one that really caught my ear. Oscar Peterson didn't write the song Night Train -- Duke Ellington did -- but he does a great rendition of it, and it's a familiar riff every guy should be able to recognize. He just has his own sound. If it's just in the CD player, you'll know it's Oscar, just by the way he's playing. His dynamics, his touch, his swing -- it's all distinct."
HERBIE HANCOCK, TAKIN' OFF, 1962 - Buy Now
"This was Herbie's first major solo record. He went through a lot of different musical stages, just like John Coltrane and many of the greats did. If you listen to him now, he sounds completely different, but even as his taste and style changes, there are certain things that remain the same. Every song on there's good, but Watermelon Man really gets me. His use of rhythms on it are unorthodox, almost funky and revolutionary."
CARMEN MCRAE, LOVER MAN, 1961 - Buy Now
"Listening to Carmen McRae is a lesson in jazz singing. The way she phrases, and the way she interprets lyrics...she's one of the greats. Carmen's recorded nearly 70 albums, and Lover Man isn't better or worse than the others -- it just happens to be one that I really like. It's an album she made as a tribute to Billie Holiday. She does Miss Brown on this album, and I liked her rendition so much that I put it on my own record."
ERROLL GARNER, CONCERT BY THE SEA, 1955 - Buy Now
"This was one of Erroll's greatest records. I just wish I had been there to see it! It was recorded live [at a converted church in California]. Maybe part of the reason it is what it is is because it's not a studio-recorded record. Eroll was great in front of an audience, and he had a unique style because he didn't have any formal music training. Like Louie Armstrong's voice, you could always recognize Eroll Garner's piano playing. There's a progressive quality about it, a swinging quality about it. Nobody swung like him."
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