Born: July 12, 1974 Primary Instrument: Guitar
Walter Beltrami is one of the most creative and interesting guitarist/composer of the new italian jazz and improvised music scene.
His last release Piccoli Numeri, produced by CamJazz, drawn international attention to his work. He studied jazz composition and performance at Berklee College of music with Mick Goodrick, John Damian, Ed Tomassi, Dave Santoro; then, he graduated with honors in performance at the Musikhochschule Luzern, Switzerland, where he studied with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Frank Moebus and Christy Doran and won a scholarship to attend the 17th IASJ Meeting, the meeting of the world-wide schools of jazz directed by Dave Liebman. He took courses and masterclasses with Chris Cheek, Stefano Battaglia, Pat Metheny, Dave Liebman, Mark Feldman, Brandford Marsalis, George Duke, Scott Henderson, John Stowell, Pat Martino, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Peter Bernstein, Walter Thompson, Silvye Courvoisier and others. In 2003 he won the Incroci Sonori Jazz Award at Moncalieri Jazz Festival and recorded the first cd with his own trio. In 2004 Beltrami won the important italian Luca Flores Award as best soloist at Barga Jazz Festival and was one of the 8 choosen final participants world-wide of the First Gibson Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition at Montreux Jazz Festival.
He has performed with Claudio Puntin, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Franco D’Andrea, Walter Thompson, Rainer Tempel, Francesco Bearzatti,Markku Ounaskari, Daniel Kinzelman, Francesco Bigoni, Moritz Eggert, Giovanni Guidi, Claudio Filippini, Danilo Gallo and many others.
He performed in jazz clubs and theaters in Italy, Spain, United States, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
It’s the kind of simpatico playing that only comes from working together regularly. Piccoli Numeri may be a new discovery--through its international availability on the Italian Cam Jazz label--but this trio has been together since 2003, with one other disc to its credit. Still, for all intents and purposes, Piccoli Numeri is Beltrami's debut on a larger scale and, in its compelling mix of elegant freedom, rich composition and group interaction, is one that augurs very well for a guitarist and trio well worth watching.” --John Kelman, All About Jazz
