Giovanni Mirabassi

Giovanni Mirabassi is a Paris-based Italian jazz pianist, born in Perugia, Italy. Self-taught, he learned by listening to Bud Powell, Art Tatum, and Oscar Peterson. He is strongly influenced by Enrico Pieranunzi. At seventeen, After a few important experiences in Italy (he plays notably with Chet Baker in 1987, and with Steve Grossman in 1988), he chooses France, and decides to settle in Paris in 1992.

In 1996, he makes a first album with Pierre-Stéphane Michel on the upright bass and Flavio Boltro on the trumpet, and obtains the “grand prix” and the best soloist prize at the Concours international de Jazz d'Avignon[1], presided by Daniel Humair.

In 2001, Giovanni Mirabassi publishes his first solo album, Avanti!: a collection of songs about revolutions, which he had been thinking of for years. This record is an important milestone in his career (Django d’Or of the best young talent and a Victoires du Jazz in 2002. The pianist starts touring regularly, as a trio or alone. Giovanni Mirabassi becomes one of the most sought after jazz musician for the French public and conquers the heart of Japan.

At the end of 2005, he publishes a new CD, Prima o poi, as a trio and quartet, on the Minium label. A year later, he releases another record of standards of French “chanson”, Cantopiano, which brings together his two preferred musical universes. Those two CDs, still saluted by public and media, anchored his unusual position in the world of jazz. In ten years time, Giovanni Mirabassi has produced a dozen CDs and DVD’s (some of them concerts released only in Japan) and has performed all around the world.

In 2008, the pianist released a new opus as a piano trio, Terra furiosa.