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300 ppp (download)
300 ppp (download)
BIO
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Luigi Grasso has emerged as one of Italy’s most exciting Jazz stars. A child prodigy, he discovered jazz and classical music at a very early age. He began saxophone studies at age 5 (as a cure for asthma!) and was almost entirely self-taught until the age of 11, when he started to attend clinics held by the Berklee College of Music at the Umbria Jazz Festival (Perugia, Italy). He was subsequently offered a full tuition scholarship to travel to Boston for the Berklee Summer Program.
In 1997 he won the international young talent competition Bravo Bravissimo, which launched his professional jazz career, resulting in performances at the most prestigious festivals, clubs, theaters and TV shows throughout Europe. His debut recording “A Love Supreme” (Java records) was released in 1999, when he was only 13 years old. He continued his studies in Italy with the American guitarist Agostino Di Giorgio, in addition to his close apprenticeship with NEA Jazz Master Barry Harris as a participant and educational assistant in Dr. Harris’ European master classes from 2001-2009. In 2004 Luigi began studies in classical composition, harmony and counterpoint at the Giovanni Martini Conservatory in Bologna, under the instruction of Chiara Benati and Francesco Carluccio.
From 2010 to 2019, Luigi lived in Paris where, on top of developing his career as a featured soloist, he taught at the Conservatoire de Paris.
In 2013 he formed the Luigi Grasso Quartet, featuring his brother Pasquale Grasso on guitar, bassist Mathias Allamane, and American drummer Keith Balla. The Quartet released “Ça Marche” and toured extensively throughout Europe, receiving widespread critical acclaim. The same year, he was a featured soloist on “Crazy Blues” (Universal), an important release by China Moses and Raphael Lemmonier. Lately he worked as Musical Director for China Moses’ new project ” Nightintales”.
In 2018 the ensemble The Greenwich Session released its first album, Invitation au Voyage (Camille Production) with a repertoire of original compositions and with a unique orchestration: french horn, english horn, basset horn and bass clarinet plus trumpets, saxophones, guitar, double bass and drums.
In 2019, Luigi joined the prestigious NDR Big Band in Germany, an opportunity that rewards a career that has seen him establish himself as one of the most prominent musicians in the current jazz scene.
In 2020, Grasso started the new Jazz Label LP3 45 along with Laurent Courthaliac, Yaron Herman and Peter Schnur.