Born in Foligno, Italy, in 1985, Giovanni Guidi first showed interest in music at the tender age of three, when he received a toy drum set as a gift. At twelve, he began to study the piano. During his studies at the summer masterclasses in Siena, he attracted the attention of Enrico Rava (the leader of the New Quintet) who later asked him to join the group Rava Under 21, and subsequently Rava New Generation. It was with this later incarnation that Guidi appeared on a nationally distributed bonus CD for the magazine ”L’Espresso.” In addition to the continuing collaboration with Rava (PM Jazz Lab and Quintet) he performs in the Gianluca Petrella’s Cosmic Music Orchestra, Fabrizio Sferra Trio and leads groups of his own. Guidi has performed at a number of important festivals, including Umbria Jazz, Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival, Ubi Jazz, Vicenza New Conversation, Umbria Jazz Balkanic Windows, Zurich Nu Jazz, Fandango Jazz Festival, Stavanger Mai Jazz, Vigo Jazz Festival and North Sea Jazz Festival. At Umbria Jazz 2006, he appeared as an artist-in-residence, performing ten consecutive nights to very enthusiastic crowds. With his quartet, featuring three other young jazz musicians: American Dan Kinzelman on woodwinds, Stefano Senni on bass, and the Portuguese drummer Joao Lobo, Guidi demonstrates his talents as a pianist and composer. The quartet performs a series Guidi’s original compositions, strongly influenced by popular music, but with very uncommon harmonic structures, and characterized by a profound melodic sense. In addition to these originals, the quartet performs fresh versions of pieces by musicians as varied as Ornette Coleman, Hampton Hawes, Radiohead and Bjork. The Giovanni Guidi Trio released a CD for the Japanese record company VENUS. The CD, Tomorrow Never Knows received five stars in a recent review by the magazine Swing Journal. In February 2007 the CD Indian Summer was released by CAM JAZZ. Giovanni Guidi has been named Best New Talent by a jury of 58 journalists and critics in a poll entitled TOP JAZZ 2007, held yearly by the Italian magazine Musica Jazz. In 2008 he released the album called The House Behind This One, in July 2009 the new album The Unknown Rebel Band. His 3rd CD for CAM Jazz marks his debut in directing a larger ensemble. The result is a record of startling intensity, successfully balancing moments of pronounced lyricism with influences from free jazz, a continuing source of inspiration for the young pianist from Foligno. |