Bringing The New York City Jazz Scene To Long Island

improvising vocally, and that was my first approach to jazz and when I first fell in love with it without even being able to name it. I didn’t know it was jazz, I didn’t know they were scatting and I thought that it was really cool, and I wanted to do that. Later on, I discovered that was jazz by listening to all the greatest: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, to earlier Christmas albums my parents were listening to. And slowly I got more into jazz.

Long Island Weekly: Can you tell me about touring all these different countries throughout the world. It must be amazing to know that your love of music has taken you to so many amazing places.

Cerreta: It’s amazing that music brought my so far. I would have never imagined that as a kid. It was always my dream to travel the world through music and I would have never had imagined that I would have gotten me so far. I have so many other projects and ideas and dreams I would like to do. I started in Avellino, which is close to Napoli. which is where I lived when I was 15. I moved there from Roma, where I was born. And I moved to Napoli. That’s where I started to sing around bars, cafes, little clubs. And then I studied at the [Domenico Cimarosa] Conservatory and during that time I had the opportunity to perform on a television show called Rai Uno Mattina In Famiglia. It’s a variety morning show that’s very famous in Italy. I performed there in my quartet. From there, I started to perform more and more around Italy, and then I moved to Germany where I worked and traveled back and forth between Italy and Germany playing in festivals, jazz clubs, theaters. Then I went back to Rome for a while, where I owned a jazz club called The Wolf Tree. And after that, I traveled to South America where I sang and played piano all over South America. I was in Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil. Then I went back to Germany where I did X-Factor Germany. And I got to the top nine of X-Factor

Long Island Weekly: You’ve been to so many places and have met so many people. Would you say this has impacted your music?

Cerreta: I sing in Spanish, French, German, Italian and in English. And when I was living in Paris, that’s where I started to sing French... All those cultures I’ve experienced have influenced my music to this day. My own compositions are a mix of all these cultures, sounds and experiences.

Long Island Weekly: What stands out to you about the iconic New York jazz scene?

Cerreta: It is amazing. It’s beautiful to be a part of this jazz scene because it’s unique in the world. It’s where everything started, in a way. It has such a huge history and this is the real sound. That’s where you really meet the people that created this music and keep on expanding the meaning of jazz.

To learn more about Cerreta, hear his music and find out how you can see him live, visit www.davidecerreta.com.

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Ellis Island by boat