San Diego Reader

A.J. Croce: Piano, Vocals | Pete Thomas: undetermined | Davey Faragher: undetermined

Genre: Acoustic, Jazz, Rock

Sound description: A one-man music festival, who’ll pull an old barrelhouse boogie-woogie stride piano jam out of one sleeve, a psychedelic pop gem or New Orleans funk groove out of the other.

RIYL: Miles Davis, Leon Russell

Upcoming Local Shows

Discography

Related Links:

• Musician Interviews: "A.J. Croce Bikes Balboa Park" · March 23, 2011

• Blurt: "French Fries and Gravy" · May 27, 2009

• Blurt: "Record Release Roundup" · March 18, 2009

• Blurt: "The Lounge is No More" · Dec. 2, 2004

Synoposis

Influences: Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Harry Chapin, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Little Richard

Background:

When A.J. Croce was a week past his second birthday, his father, singer-songwriter Jim Croce, died in a September 1973 plane crash. A few years after A.J. and his mother Ingrid arrived in San Diego, he developed a brain tumor that cost him his eyesight. This was the beginning of what would become a success story for this nearly native San Diegan.

By his early teens, A.J. Croce had regained most of the vision in his left eye, a blessing he found difficult to ascribe to divine intervention. “I went to a Hebrew school for junior high. I followed that with a bar mitzvah and followed that with 25 years of questioning faith and answering questions with questions. How am I doing?”

Even before his vision improved, he had become an accomplished piano player and songsmith. Supporting his musical endeavors was his mom, who’d sung on early records with her late husband and whose Croce’s nightclub was an early linchpin in downtown’s unlikely transition from shore-leave sailors to Gaslamp glitterati.

Since his self-titled debut in 1993, Croce has worked with T. Bone Burnett, Jim Keltner, and Ry Cooder, among others. Among his influences, “I saw Ray Charles when I was opening the shows at Wolftrap and Ravinia [festivals], and it blew me away that he could play so slow and was so relaxed and perfect in his way.”

Each of Croce’s CDs has hit the radio charts in a different genre. His debut, A.J. Croce, entered the top ten U.S. jazz chart in 1993. The followup, That’s Me in the Bar, landed again in the top ten in 1995, but this time in the Americana and blues chart.

Subsequently, 1998’s Fit to Serve placed again on the blues chart, but also on the AAA chart, and 2000’s Transit garnered a spot again on AAA and also on the American college radio chart. His 2006 single “Don’t Let Me Down,” from his CD Adrian James Croce, is the only song by an artist on an independent label to hit the U.S. Top 40 charts in 2006.

“I’m pretty eclectic. I’ve been filed in five or six different genres in stores and on the radio, so it may be easiest to describe my music as Ray Charles meets Ray Davies, or Elvis Presley meets Elvis Costello, or John Hurt meets John Lennon, or maybe Randy Newman meets Jim Croce, which was my first concert.”

Croce’s 2009 album, Cage of Muses, features Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher (the Attractions/the Impostors/Jack Shit). Croce’s first three albums, That’s Me in the Bar, A.J. Croce, and Fit to Serve are available for download.

As of 2011, Croce plays organ with local rockers the Amandas, as well as maintaining his solo stage act. In Autumn 2011, he toured Europe with Gregory Page. A 2012 release, Further On, collects his last three Americana albums: Early On: The American Recordings 1993-1998, Cantos, and Cage of Muses.