Giovanni Mazzarino

Giovanni Mazzarino (born May 26, 1965 in Messina ) is an Italian jazz pianist and band leader.

Live and act

Giovanni Mazzarino began to play the piano autodidactically at the age of five; from 1973 to 1975 he had classical lessons, then shifted his interests to jazz, especially those of the American swing orchestras. From 1980 to 1985 he wrote his first arrangements for recording studios; In 1986 he studied orchestration and arrangement at the Berklee School of Music in Boston , then in Perugia as part of Umbria Jazz .

In the 1990s he worked with numerous musicians from the Italian jazz scene, a. a. with Enzo Randisi. In 1990/91 he was a member of the “Orchestra Jazz Siciliana”; In 1991 a first album was created under his own name, Silence, Please for the Splas (c) h label, on which u. a. Flavio Boltro took part. In 1993 he played at the International Festival of San Marino in the "Jazz Italian All Stars" with Lino Patruno and Romano Mussolini .

1995 began his collaboration with the singer Joan Cartwright. Since 1997 he has been teaching harmony and jazz piano at the Caltanissetta Conservatory . In 1998 he went on tour with Randy Brecker and recorded the album Live at Brass Jazz Club with him and his own trio ; he then toured with his East Quartet of Eddie Henderson , Mike McGuirk and Eliot Zigmund . In 1999 he began working with singer Mark Murphy ; since then he has been working with his “Mark Murphy European Quintet” and his “Giovanni Mazzarino Quartet” with tenor saxophonist Francesco Bearzatti, bassist Stefano Senni and drummer Paolo Mappa ( Plays Ballads ). In 2000 he worked with Tom Harrell ; In 2001 he went on tour in a trio with Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum . In 2002 he formed a quartet with trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso , with whom the album Evening in Blue was created; with Swallow and Nussbaum the album Nostalgia followed on Splash Records .

Mazzarino also worked during his career a. a. with Franco Ambrosetti , Claudio Fasoli , Roberto Gatto , Rosario Giuliani , Massimo Urbani , Lester Bowie , Jimmy Cobb , Silvia Droste , Bobby Durham , Dusko Goykovich , Mick Goodrick , Bob Mintzer , Kurt Rosenwinkel , Bucky Pizzarelli , Valery Ponomarev and Tony Scott .

Discographic notes

• Silence Please (Splas (c) h, 1991)
• Thinking Miles (RAM, 1994)
• I Remember Miles (Anaglyphos Records, 1997)
• Plays Ballads ( Philology , 1999)
• Beautiful Child (Philology, 2000)
• Live in Taormina - Giovanni Mazzarino Trio feat. George Robert
• The Cyclone
• Live at Blue Note Milan - Mark Murphy & Giovanni Mazzarino Trio

literature

• Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 2nd Edition. Penguin, London 1994, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .

Web links

• Website by Giovanni Mazzarino