Luigi Grasso

Luigi Grasso (born September 28, 1986 in Ariano Irpino ) is an Italian jazz musician who has mastered the whole family of saxophones . As a teenager he released several records and is currently the youngest member of the NDR big band .

Live and act

Growing up in a family of music lovers in the province of Avellino , Grasso discovered music and the saxophone as a child around the age of six. His parents and his doctor came up with the idea of getting him to do breathing exercises with the help of a wind instrument in order to do something against his very severe asthma . He chose the alto saxophone and enjoyed the game. The asthma problem was solved by the age of ten, but making music (also with his guitar-playing brother Pasquale ) remained his favorite pastime. Even at this age he took part in the Boston Summer Seminar of the Berklee College of Music as part of Umbria Jazz , where prominent musicians taught him. He won the young talent competition Bravo Bravissimo in 1997. With the trio of Teo Ciavarella , he made his first album ( A Love Supreme ) in 1999 ; In 2001 a duo album followed with his brother. He also studied composition , counterpoint and piano , initially as an autodidact , since 2004 at the Bologna Conservatory. Further albums followed in 2006 with the trio of Renato Sellani and with the saxophonist Nicolas Dary.

In 2012 he recorded Ça marche, an album of his own quartet for the Echopolite label , which received numerous reviews. In the following years he wrote the music for two other projects, The Greenwich Session (2018) and Mariposas Mambos . In 2014 an album was created with the New York All Stars . The following year he founded the SaX mAdneSs trio with Gilles Naturel and Stéphane Chandelier. Between 2015 and 2018 he also worked as musical director for China Moses . In Paris he also played with Raphäel Lemonnier , Alain Jean-Marie , Pierre Boussaguet , Fabien Mary and Géraud Portal .

Since September 2010, he has been teaching in Paris at the Conservatories of the 9th and 17th Arrondissements, succeeding André Villéger , before becoming a member of the NDR Big Band as a baritone saxophonist in 2019 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Grasso, Luigi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Italian jazz musician (saxophone, composition)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH	September 28, 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ariano Irpino