In his younger years, Francisco Haye, the birth name of multi-instrumentalist, singer, and producer Cisco Swank, was still dreaming of a career as a classical pianist. All that changed when he discovered the impressive work of jazz legends such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard on YouTube. When Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly was released a few years later, featuring a fusion of hip-hop and jazz by respective genre protagonists Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington, the New Yorker finally discovered his own musical pathway. With his infectious concoction of rap, R&B, indie and jazz, Haye follows in the footsteps of all his main examples, but mainly tends to create his own musical universe. According to trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, who features on the acclaimed debut More Better (2023) by the versatile Brooklynite, Haye redefines Black music through his diverse body of work: "It's just who he is. He is Black music. All of it. It's in every note."
