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Giovanni Mirabassi

Italian pianist and composer, born in Perugia in 1970. He starts playing the piano at the age of three and gets interested in jazz at ten. Self-taught, he studies while listening to Bud Powell, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Jacky Byard, then Bill Evans, Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, and also musicians playing other instruments than the piano, ranging from Charlie Parker to Pat Metheny, but also Astor Piazzolla and Elton John, Bach, Brahms, Charles Mingus… And of course Enrico Pieranunzi who remains one of his most influential pianists.

At 17, he gives his first important concert at a moment’s notice, accompanying Chet Baker on a visit to Perugia. At the same period, he performs for the first time as a leader, gathering various musicians of the Italian scene playing his own compositions. At nineteen, he also participates in a tour around Italy playing with Steve Grossman.

In 1992, he decides to settle in Paris. There, he meets Aldo Ciccolini who gives him his first piano lessons. His teaching will last three years.

While doing odd jobs like working as a waiter or night watchman, he studies and practises the piano. He also starts meeting Parisian musicians. In 1993, he gets his first professional contract in the setting of the Chanson française. In 1994, he forms his first music group, the trio Panta Rei (with Alain Raman on the bass and Xavier Frathely on the drums), which enables him to enter the circuit of the Parisian jazz clubs (Petit Opportun, Sunset…). He then meets his fellow countrymen : Flavio Boltro, Stefano Di Battista, Paolo Fresu, thus integrating the new generation of Italian jazzmen living in Paris.

Towards the end of 1994, he can dedicate himself entirely to music. He plays more and more as a sideman in jazz groups but also continues to work on the Chanson française, as an accompanist and composer.

In 1996, he records a first album with the bass player Pierre-Stéphane Michel and the trumpet player Flavio Boltro and wins the Grand Prize and the Prize for the best soloist at the International Jazz Competition of Avignon, presided by Daniel Humair.

In 1998, he produces his first CD forming a trio with the drummer Louis Moutin and the bass player Daniele Mencarelli. Daniel Humair incites him to contact Philippe Ghielmetti, who has just created the label Sketch, to make him listen to this recording. The producer likes it a lot and offers him an artist’s contract for several CDs. Architectures, released in October 1999, gets excellent reviews which enable the young pianist to impose himself as a leader. The piano trio will remain his favourite type of music formation.

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5
Album Review

Eva Slongo: Souffle

Read "Souffle" reviewed by Ian Patterson


Improvisation was once a norm for classical musicians, and not just for geniuses such as Bach, Mozart, Liszt or Paganini. That freedom has, to a very large degree, been curtailed by classical music institutions, along with composition. On Souffle, her second album following Inspirations (Unit Records, 2016), Swiss-born, Paris-based violinist Eva Slongo breaks a few metaphorical eggs in bringing the worlds of classical music and jazz together. Of the nine tracks, six are originals, with Slongo's arrangements of Fauré, Beethoven ...

2
Live Review

I Poeti del Piano Solo, alla Sala Vanni di Firenze

Read "I Poeti del Piano Solo, alla Sala Vanni di Firenze" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


I Poeti del Piano Solo Musicus Concentus Sala Vanni Firenze 1-3.10.2020 Ci vuole un certo coraggio per inaugurare una nuova rassegna subito dopo la pandemia, con tutte le limitazioni poste agli eventi culturali e di spettacolo, per giunta proprio mentre l'autunno sembra portare un incremento dei contagi. Un coraggio che non è mancato al Musicus Concentus e a Stefano Maurizi, pianista fiorentino che per anni ha lavorato a Parigi, che hanno rispettivamente organizzato e ...

2
Album Review

Stéphane Spira, Giovanni Mirabassi: Improkofiev

Read "Improkofiev" reviewed by Thomas Fletcher


Dwelling on previous influences and past concepts to construct a fresh approach to an idea is a common approach in jazz. The title of this album indicates a pathway into the art of giving classical repertoire some jazz characteristics. Introduced to Prokofiev around 2005 by a Turkish jazz presenter and radio host, Stéphane Spira was fascinated by the Russian composer's dense and rich harmonies. “As soon as I heard the Violin Concerto," says Spira, “I was struck by ...

5
Album Review

Spirabassi: Improkofiev

Read "Improkofiev" reviewed by Jack Bowers


There haven't been many jazz quartets whose front line consists solely of a soprano saxophone (Wayne Shorter's is the only one that springs readily to mind). The cleverly named Spirabassi pairs French-born soprano saxophonist Stephane Spira with Italian-bred pianist Giovanni Mirabassi in a group whose other members are bassist Steve Wood and a second Frenchman, drummer Donald Kontomanou, with Yoann Loustalot's radiant flugelhorn added on Part 1 of the album's centerpiece, the “Improkofiev Suite." Spirabassi is also the name of ...

12
Album Review

Stephane Spira: Improkofiev

Read "Improkofiev" reviewed by Edward Blanco


French soprano saxophonist Stephane Spira and Italian-born pianist Giovanni Mirabassi recorded their first album together back in 2009. Improkofiev is the pair's first collaboration since then. After a ten-year period spent in New York, where he developed a flourishing musical career, Spira returned to France and continued his jazz career, reuniting with friend Mirabassi. This album is the duo's attempt to recapture their shared past and a provide little reinvention in both their lives and music. The co-leaders ...

Album Review

Giovanni Mirabassi Trio: Summer's Gone

Read "Summer's Gone" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Giovanni Mirabassi torna al classico trio, dopo il piano solo Live in Germany e i due lavori in cui il medesimo trio era affiancato da un'orchestra d'archi (Viva V.E.R.D.I., registrato in Corea del Sud) e ospitava il vibrafonista Stefon Harris (No Way Out). La formazione è la medesima, con Gianluca Renzi al contrabbasso e Lukmil Perez alla batteria, e tutto sommato la medesima è anche la cifra stilistica: lirismo e perfezione tecnica al servizio di brani quasi tutti originali (con ...

Album Review

Giovanni Mirabassi: Live In Germany

Read "Live In Germany" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Registrazione dal vivo effettuata ai Bauer Studios di Ludwigsburg, questo disco documenta un triplo omaggio tributato da Giovanni Mirabassi ad altrettante grandi cantanti: Edith Piaf, Mercedes Sosa ed Ella Fitzgerald. Si tratta senza dubbio di un progetto pienamente nelle corde del pianista, perugino ma francese d'adozione, che può lanciarsi in calde e raffinate rivisitazioni di alcuni bellissimi brani, tra i cavalli di battaglia delle tre grandi signore della musica mondiale, approfittando anche del suono dello Steinway del 1923 messogli a ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Souffle

Continuo Jazz
2022

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Improkofiev

Self Produced
2020

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Summer's Gone

CAM Jazz
2018

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Live In Germany

CAM Jazz
2017

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No Way Out

CAM Jazz
2016

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Viva V.E.R.D.I.

CAM Jazz
2014

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Improkofiev

From: Improkofiev
By Giovanni Mirabassi

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