BIOGRAPHY
(italian text below)

Having recently heard the exquisite and inventive piano paying of Danilo Blaiotta, I was intrigued to discover how the italian pianist transferred his skills to the traditional trio format. Having studied with J.Taylor, K.Werner, L.Grenadier and A.Cohen, it's easy to see why he is now coming to the fore as one of Europ's most sought-after jazz musicians.

(Mike Gates - UK VIBE)

There is a young musician, Danilo Blaiotta, who has come to light in recent years and has produced some interesting works that have garnered great acclaim both among musicians and among fans of the jazz universe. Excellent pianist, with technique but also with great personality, Blaiotta focuses on his style, complex but never unnecessarily verbose, a natural melodic propensity and a lot of research and experimentation, obtaining an absolutely special narrative result

(Ernesto Assante - La Repubblica)

The classical scores have left a marked and sinuous mark in the pieces of Danilo Blaiotta

(Guido Festinese – Il Manifesto)

New talents of Italian jazz grow and amaze with special effects. This is the case of Danilo Blaiotta. "The White Nights Suite" is one of the most interesting Italian records of the year.

(Ivo Franchi – Musica Jazz)

"The White Nights Suite" is the best Italian jazz album listened to this year

(Fabio Chiarini – Blow Up)

Danilo Blaiotta was born in 1987. Pianist and keyboardist, eclectic musician, a very original composer, arranger and music historian, an intense career behind him as a classical pianist, having developed from a very young age the love for classical and jazz music.

He grew up in Lago Maggiore and studied for more than 10 years with Chiara Nicora. He graduated magna cum laude with G. Maiorca at the Conservatorio di Cosenza (2nd level major in piano) and has won many first prize awards both nationally and internationally. He has performed in important festivals in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Latvia, Romania, USA and Russia. Among his maestros are C.Nicora, A.Porrini, E.Murano, M.Marvulli, C.Burato, S.Perticaroli.

He frequented the bi-annual master class at the “Scuola di Musica Fiesole” led by M° Andrea Lucchesini and studied for years with M° Aldo Ciccolini. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 he performed various monographic recitals dedicated to Chopin, Liszt and Debussy on the celebrative occasion of these composers’ birthdates. He has performed in concerts for piano and orchestra with the Donetsk Philharmonic (Ukraine) and the Synapsis Orchestra.

 He has been the concertmaster in various lyric operas and composed pieces for “Imedea Edizioni d’Arte”, “Doppio Misto” e “Gaele Edizioni”.

Despite his prodigious career as a concert performer of classical music, Blaiotta is widely known as one of the young talents in Italian jazz circles. He has studied with John Taylor, Kenny Werner, Larry Grenadier and Avishai Cohen while boasting continuous collaborations in projects and tours with musicians of international status such as Logan Richardson, Tommy Crane, Byron Landham, Alexander Claffy, Pat Senatore, Fabrizio Bosso, Roberto Gatto, Stefano Di Battista, Claudio Fasoli, Achille Succi, Pietro Leveratto, Attilio Zanchi, Mike Applebaum, Micheal Supnick, Moritz Gotzen, Karl Degenhardt, Marcello Rosa, Francesco Diodati, Matteo Bortone, Marcello Allulli, Gegè Munari, Giorgio Rosciglione, Dario Rosciglione, Robertinho De Paula, Reinaldo Santiago, Joe Amoruso, Antonio Onorato, Alberto Parmegiani, Giuseppe Bassi, Francesco Puglisi, Luca Nostro, Anita Vitale et.al.

Internationally career

2013 – 2015: Highly requested in Germany where, he has performed for the Eppstein Klavierfest 2014 and 2015, Kelkheim Kulturbahnhof 2015, Hofheim Stadthalle; as well as festivals in Wiesbaden, Frankfurt Am Mein, Darmstadt, Langen, etc…), gaining notoriety among the critics and audiences.

In 2016 and 2017 he played several concerts in northern Europe in duo with accordionist Antonio Spaccarotella. Among these, the one for the Italian Embassy in Belgium, at the Chapelle du Roi in Brussels, and in Latvia as special guests of the "Akordeon competition Naujene 2017 at the Daugevpils Theater.

In october 2017 he has completed a concert tour in Russia which also saw him as teacher (giving a master class on jazz improvisation at the Astrakhan Conservatory).

Among the concerts in the United States, he performed in a tour in Washington State - October 2019 and in New York City in December 2021, during which he created a new trio project with Alexander Claffy on Double Bass and Byron Landham on Drums.          

In 2022 he won the prize for best composer of the "Johnny Raducanu International Jazz Festival" in Romania, for the song "The Devil's Kitchen".

Projects

Blaiotta's first recording experiments as a producer and pianist extend between 2015 and 2017. He produced two albums for Picanto Records. The first called "Balkanica", a quintet project with Achille Succi, Pietro Leveratto, Marco Rossin and Fabrizio La Fauci; the album is a tribute to his Arbëreshë origins and collects songs of Albanian, Serbian and Macedonian tradition rearranged, as well as two original songs written by Blaiotta and inspired by Balkan music. The second recording is a 2017 album "Agora-Ta – Remembering Elis Regina" , a quartet composed by Serena Lionetto, Alessio Iorio and Alessio Sisca (Guest Robertinho De Paula, guitarist from Rio De Janeiro and son of the famous brazilian musician Irio De Paula) inspired by the music of MPB written for the great artist from Porto Alegre.

In 2019, for the label Wow Records, he released "Crabs" in duo with saxophonist and bass clarinetist Achille Succi. The album is a collection of 10 original compositions. Among the songs written by Blaiotta for this album, there are some early compositions born in the first period of approach to jazz writing.

In 2020 was released his first album as a leader, entitled "Departures" (Filibusta Records). The album (consisting of 6 original compositions and 3 covers) is a Trio recording with Jacopo Ferrazza on double bass and Valerio Vantaggio on drums and can boast more than 30 reviews in Italy and abroad (these are those on UK Vibe in England and Jazz&blues News in the USA). Countless FM and Web radio passages around the world. In Italy it has been presented in musical programs on Rai Radio 1, Rai Radio 3, Radio Classica fm, Radio 24, Repubblica TV. In March 2021"Departures" was awarded in Japan in the ranking of the top 10 jazz albums in the world for 2020 by the prestigious magazine "Jazz Hihyo", along with legendary artists such as Keith Jarrett and Peter Bernstein!

2021- The second recording project of the Danilo Blaiotta Trio is entitled The White Nights Suite (Filibusta Records 2021), an original composition which includes 11 movements composed by the leader, inspired by the novel The White Nights by Fedor Dostoevsky. For the occasion, the formation of the basic trio extends to the sextet, hosting three important musicians of the Italian jazz scene: Fabrizio Bosso on trumpet, Achille Succi on alto sax and bass clarinet, Stefano Carbonelli on guitar. The album was reviewed with flying colors by all the most important music magazines in Italy. Among these are Musica Jazz, Rockerilla, Blow Up, and it is in the top 100 of the best international records 2021 for JAZZIT magazine. This recording work led, in January 2022, to the award as the sixth best Italian talent 2021 within the historic TOP JAZZ referendum organized by the magazine Musica Jazz.

2022 – In June 2022 he released the album "Colors", his first album as a composer for soundtracks released for "Flipper Music". On June 21 he was called by the to perform a solo piano concert under the colonnade of the Pantheon, on the occasion of the Festa Della Musica organized by Comune di Roma Capitale. Among the repertoire chosen for the occasion he played some of these new compositions premiered.

As a sideman, he participates in the creation of two albums within the quartet of saxophonist Vittorio Cuculo ("Between" – Alfa Music in 2019 and "Ensemble" – Wow Records in 2021), with Enrico Mianulli on double bass and the legendary Gege Munari on drums. He is a member of the quintet of the Roman guitarist Andrea Gomellini, with whom he records the album "The Gift" (Ama Records 2020). He is a guest in some albums of Italian singer-songwriters such as Chiara Padellaro, Luigi Negroni, Roberto Angelelli and Paola Seminara.

Theatre, Radio, TV

Besides his many concert duties, Blaiotta is also active as a musician for the theater, radio and TV with collaborations among artists such as Massimo Lopez and Marisa Laurito for Rai Uno, with the Chiara Padellaro Quartet and the Agora Tà Quartet for Rai Radio1 and with the Mark Hanna Band a “Webnotte” for Repubblica Tv. In the theater with Anita Bartolucci, Mariano Rigillo and Anna Teresa Rossini, Gino Castaldo and Ernesto Assante, Max Paiella and the Mark Hanna Band, Susy Sergiacomo, Tonino and Eleonora Tosto, Flavia di Domenico, Marina Vitolo. Also in “Clitennestra” (2012), “Peggio di un Bastardo” (2013/14), “Pane Amore e De Pretore” (2015), “Beatles vs. Rolling stones” (2016/17), “In Nome della Madre” e “Giusto a Metà” (2018), “Le Ballate dell’angelo Ferito”, “Tutti sulla Giostra”, "L'Ultimo Polverone" (2019).

Dissemination

Since 2019 he deals with dissemination as an expert in the History of Jazz at various radio stations:

-In March and April 2021 he was a regular guest for 6 episodes of Stereonotte Brasil on Rai Radio1, telling stories and reinterpreting live at the piano some important compositions of the Brazilian tradition.

-Creator and host of the radio show Speak Low, aired every week for 100 episodes on Radio Città Aperta – Rome from 16 April 2019 to 8 June 2021 hosting more than 200 live musicians among the most important of the contemporary scene. In particular, the episode aired live by the Alexander Platz Jazz Club in Rome in memory of Massimo Urbani, on March 3, 2020, during which Blaiotta interviewed and musically involved most of the most important Italian jazz musicians protagonists of the 70s and 80s period.

- From 2022 he is co-host of the transmission L'Arpeggio on Vatican Radio called by Maestro Luigi Picardi as an expert in jazz dissemination

- As a writer, in November 2022 he published the first volume of a series entitled Il Jazz e L'Europa, published by Gaele Edizioni, dedicated to the relationship between the composers of European tradition of the early 900 and the dawn of jazz in the United States.

As an organizer, since 2011 he has been Artistic Director of the "Amici della Musica" Theatre of Castrovillari and since 2018 of the Frascineto Music Festival. He is the creator and host of the radio show Speak Low, broadcast every Tuesday evening on Radio Città Aperta - Rome. The broadcast reached nearly 100 episodes, all recorded live, and hosted more than 200 live musicians.

Teaching

- In 2017 he held a master-class at the Astrakhan State Conservatory (Russia)

- In the A.Y. 2021/2022 he teached Jazz Composition at the G. Tartini Conservatory of Trieste. He currently resides in Rome, where the most part of his new projects and collaborations are born.

Artistic Directions

2009-2011: A.D. of the concert season "Note Altre" of Montalto Uffugo

2011 – ongoing: A.D. of the concert season "Amici della Musica" of Castrovillari

2018: A.D. of Frascineto Music Festival.

Discography as a Leader

Achille Succi e Danilo Blaiotta – Crabs (Wow Records 2019)

Danilo Blaiotta Trio – Departures (Filibusta 2020)

Danilo Blaiotta Trio Feat. Fabrizio Bosso, Achille Succi, Stefano Carbonelli (Filibusta 2021)                                      

Discography as a Producer and Pianist

Balkanica – Balkanica (Picanto 2015)

Agora Tà – Remembering Elis Regina (Picanto 2016)

Discography as a Sideman

Luigi Negroni – Mia Sorella e le altre (Autop. 2013)

Chiara Padellaro – Acqua (Filibusta 2018)

Vittorio Cuculo 4et – Between (Alfa Music 2019)

Andrea Gomellini 5et – The Gift (Ama Records 2020)

Roberto Angelelli – Beatles on the sofa (GB Music 2021)

Vittorio Cuculo 4et – Ensemble (Wow Records 2021)

Discography as a Soundtracks Composer

Danilo Blaiotta - Colors (Flipper Music 2022)

WEBSITE: www.daniloblaiotta.com

BIOGRAFIA

Having recently heard the exquisite and inventive piano playing of Danilo Blaiotta, I was intrigued to discover how the Italian pianist transferred his skills to the traditional trio format. Having studied with J.Taylor, K.Werner, L.Grenadier and A.Cohen, it’s easy to see why he is now coming to the fore as one of Europe’s most sought-after jazz musicians.