Good taste, fresh ideas, a balance of groove and melodic sense makes
trumpeter and composer Fabio Morgera appreciated around the world.
At this time he is mainly working with the NUBLU ORCHESTRA conducted by BUTCH MORRIS and with his own two projects: NEED FOR PEACE (acoustic vibraphone trio or quartet) and TURBULENCE (electric freejazzfunk) .
Born in Naples, Italy in 1963, he lost his left hand in an accident at age 4,
nevertheless he learned to play guitar and electric bass in left-handed
fashion, then switched to trumpet at 15. After having been rejected by the Conservatory of Florence for his disability he went to study at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with Tolmino Marianini and took jazz clinics with Enrico Rava, Kenny Wheeler and Terence Blanchard.
At the age of 17 he joined the CAM orchestra conducted by Bruno Tommaso and in 1981 he started playing with the italian
jazz composer Giorgio Gaslini and with the European Community Youth Jazz
Orchestra. In 1982 he won 2nd prize at the 1st Leverkusen Jazz Competition
for Newcomers. In 1986 he also won 2nd prize at the Competition for Big Band Arranging in Barga, Italy , and was appointed to conduct an Italian All Stars Big Band (which included P.Fresu and P. Tonolo and L. Flores among others) in Kiev, USSR.
In 1985 he had relocated to Los Angeles to
attend the Dick Grove School of Music and in 1987 went on to Berklee College in Boston, where
he recorded his first album as a leader TAKE 1 (Red Records 1989), featuring
George Garzone. The opportunity to record his debut release was given to him by impresario Alberto Alberti who saw him play a blues and rhythm changes at UmbriaJazz 1988, after Fabio had been surprisingly invited to sit in with the Cedar Walton trio (w/Billy Higgins and David Williams) + Jackie McLean!
Morgera moved to NYC in 1990 where he continued
performing as a jazz bandleader at clubs like Birdland and Visiones with bandmates David Sanchez and Leon Parker and guests like Steve Turre, Billy Hart, Mark Turner. In NYC he kept taking trumpet lessons with Vince Penzerella (NY Philarmonic ) and had only one lesson with Donald Byrd which nevertheless changed his life... Other mentors are Butch Morris, Eddie Henderson and Valery Ponomarev.
Fabio is one of the founders of
GROOVE COLLECTIVE, recently Grammy nominated for Best Contemporary Jazz Album (People People Music Music, SavoyJazz 2006) .
In 1995 he also recorded and toured with RnB star MAXWELL and in
1997 he became a member of the multimedial show URBAN TAP led by the great tap dancer TAMANGO. Also played with the MINGUS BIG BAND, the
VILLAGE VANGUARD ORCHESTRA, ROY HARGROVE'S BIG BAND, ALVIN QUEEN, JD ALLEN, and the JASON LINDNER BIG BAND.
He has
recorded with many DJ's including Smash, Jazzy Nice, Louie Vega, Eric Kupper, Mark Farina, Romain, Spinna, Dennis Ferrer, Jon Cutler.
Other albums under his direction are:
THE PURSUIT w/ Jesse Davis, Geoff Keezer, Peter Washington, Billy Hart and Leon Parker (1991),
BE HIP w/ Mark Turner, Steve Turre, Kevin Hays, Dwayne Burno, Billy Hart, DJ Smash (1993) ,
SLICK w/ JD Allen, Jason Jackson, Bill Ware, Peter Griesinger, Eric Revis, Alvester Garnett (1999),
NEW HOPES w/ JD Allen, J. Jackson, Jesse Chandler, A. Garnett (2001),
COLORS feat. Steve Turre and JD Allen, James Hurt, Joe Ashlar, Eric Revis, A. Garnett (2002),
RED STARS feat. Victor Lewis and JD Allen, J.Jackson, Eric Lewis, Raymond Angry, Eric Revis (2004),
THE VOICE WITHIN w/ Krystle Warren, Stefano di Battista, Josh Roseman, J.Jackson, Gregoire Maret, Joe Ashlar, Barney McAll, Jonathan Maron, Bruce Cox , Saul Rubin, Dionysus, Bruno Briscik (2005),
NEED FOR PEACE (2007) w/ K. Warren, Miles Griffith, Antonio Barbagallo, J. Jackson, Joe Ashlar , Gregg August, Joseph Lepore, Bruce Cox.
Fabio Morgera has also produced albums by JD Allen, Kenyatta Beasley, Pablo Bobrowicky
and Urbantap.
He has written his own method for improvisation in italian titled METODO PRATICO PER L'IMPROVVISAZIONE.
