Giuseppe Cucchiara

Giuseppe Cucchiara is a Sicilian-born upright bassist and composer based in New York, where he leads the quartet Unsung Tales with Ben Solomon on tenor saxophone, Chris McCarthy on piano and Adam Arruda on drums. He grew up in Villarosa, Sicily, in a household built around music (his father is a classical upright bassist), took up the bass in 2010, and spent his teens working with Italian drummer Stefano Bagnoli's We Kids Trio. A merit scholarship took him to Berklee College of Music in 2015, where he studied with Hal Crook, Danilo Perez, George Garzone and Joe Lovano before earning a bachelor's degree in music performance in 2017, the same year he released his first album as a leader, Cookin' Hot. After moving to New York he was mentored for several years by Ron Carter. He co-led the 2025 album First Book Done with Simon Moullier and Chris McCarthy, and has performed at Dizzy's Club, Smalls, Ornithology and The Jazz Gallery as well as festivals in Europe and Latin America.