About Me
..This profile was edited with Hi everyone! I was born in Italy, Sardinia in 1974. I started playing music in my childhood inspired by my father. We had a lot of instruments at home and he could play Folk rock acoustic guitar, some jazz and marching band clarinet and alto sax and some jazz standards on the piano.At first I tried to participate to some jazz sessions in our living room with his friends by just playing the small flute that I got in school. Later playing at the piano exactly the same stuff my father did. When I was 13 I got my first synthesizer and I started step by step to develop on my own way.I used a little sequencer a lot, trying to compose short songs and improvising on it.At that time I had the chance to attend to a lot of concerts , there was a huge summer jazz festival in CagliariI remember seeing many times the Art Ensemble of Chicago ..Guess I am not the only one because they were pretty much around in Sardinia in that time. :) I had been really impressed by two Miles's Davis concerts in the 80s,e specially the way he played the pop song "Time after time" by Cindy Lauper.When I was 17 I started to follow some jazz workshops in Sardinia, at Nuoro.I had piano lessons with Roberto Cipelli, jazz analysis with Marcello Pirasmany combo classes and master classes, in particular one with pianist John Taylor in 1995. In that period I met some of the musicians with whom I would work for several years: Manolo Cabras, who at that time played only electric bass and drummer Alessandro Garau. We started playing together in Cagliari setting up many different formations and performing in many clubs does anybody remember "La Ultima Follia" ?????We became a group of friends, always playing, talking and listening to music.We did not play strict jazz; surely I was not able to do it . But we loved many of the music we could find in the ECM catalogue. You had to buy cds on that time.... :)There are so many musicians I played with in those years, Starting from Nicola Cossu......................... With Nicola I used to play almost every day and I learned from him all kind of things you can't find in any manual or book ever written :) Gianluca Corona,......................... For few years we also played together in a Pop band called Clisma and in another one called Fuori Orario touring Sardinia with some famous Italian singers like Grazia di Michele and Fiordaliso.The band of 1996 was really unforgettable, under the direction of known drummer Pantera. And more a lot of playing with very close friends Roberto Simeoni, Marcello Carro, and Paolo Siddi.................. We used to do some really extreme experimental stuff till late at night in his rehearsal room with huge garden in Quartucciu .And again played with Daniele Russo, Sandro Fontoni ,Sandro Puddu, Federico Vassallo ,Sandro Angiolini,Adriano Orru ,A ntonio piras, Carlo Setzi,Peo Alfonsi,Pascal Pintori, singers Patrizia Deiana and Laura Mura, collaborations with Sandro Satta, Enzo Favata, Massimo ferra, Massimo Tore , Nicola Piras and even some salsa Latin bands with Giovanni Dessi , Roberto Deidda and singer violinist from Carloforte Mario Brai. With a tri with Nicola on bass and Daniele we participated on a festival in Posada and with Manolo and Alessandro on Berchidda jazz festival joined by trumpet player Riccardo Pittau.When I was 20 I decided to go outside Sardinia and I went to Bologna, where I followed the course at DAMS for few years. Then I got in to another jazz course at Siena, so called High qualifications for jazz musicians and contemporary derivations. There I studied piano with Stefano Battaglia and particularly had combo with Enrico Rava and trio class with Furio di CastriLater back in Sardinia I started a very free and inspiring collaboration with trumpet player Mario Massa......... thanks to our work I had the chance to open a performance of pianist Michel Camilo at Santa Annaresi Festival. (With Mario there will be some new things coming joined by Barcelona based guitar player Maurizio Marzo and possibly American famous percussionist and mystic Z'EV)Then I moved to Holland, to The Hague, where I currently live. I joined there my friends Manolo and pianist Augusto Pirodda, and bass player Federico Vassallo I studied there for 4 years and after graduating I got also a master degree in jazz pianoPiano teachers were Rob van Bavel and Jasper Soffers and very important for classic piano Albert Brussee. Besides studying I started to play also with many musicians coming from different countries to study just like me. I played and many times rehearsed with many good musicians: Alexandra Grimal, Joao Lobo, Emanuel Donadelli, Michele Bagaglio , Onur Ataman, Marian masik, Cedric Brunet, Elisabetta Delogu ,Toine Thys, .............. I got a very close collaboration with guitar player Carlos Gutierrez. Particularly I have been part of part of a band called Historical Animals , led by French Jean Marie Goupil on the trumpet. I started to play again more synthetisers than piano and to focus more on electronics . With my old friend Manolo we started a new experimental electro-acoustic project, that is still going on nowadays, called "Basic Borg" with the singer Lynn Cassiers and the drummer Oriol Roca During the years in Holland I started work more intensively with drummer Clint Maranja and bass player Daniel Lottesberger. We share different projects, "LMC acoustic trio" , " The electro band Jacobs ladder" and more funky groove oriented bands like Soul Republic and the one with singer and guitar player Paul Robbert. You can check the "my space" sites for this bands. There you will find information and music samples. Last collaboration is the one with Spanish guitar player Nando Lago. Together we will play more intensively in Holland and SpainYou can watch here some videos of our latest performance at Manteca jazz club in Vigo, Spain, recorded 18 November 2007 with Noli Torres on drums and Rafael Morales on electric bassthank you all! Matteo
