About Me
Raised in a quiet family from a little town in the south of Italy, Enrico quickly found music thanks to his nerdy-attitude surfing the internet, some of his closest friends, and Pat Metheny’s shows his father brought him to.
After his friends grew up taller than him, seeing no future in basketball apparently, he picked up the guitar at the age of 13, studying the classical repertoire and rocking out Metallica and Led Zeppelin in his bedroom until he discovered two recordings by Django Reinhardt and Charlie Parker. He immediately fell in love with jazz but had to find it somewhere else, travelling towards the end of High School to Austin, TX, where he could find the blues, and a Big Band to start his experience with.
After finding out that’s what he wanted to do, he moved to Den Haag the Netherlands to study at the Royal Conservatory graduating his Bachelors and Masters Cum Laude, and hasn’t stopped travelling ever since, back and forth from New York, Italy, Spain with friendship through music and a deep love for jazz as his motto.
His eagerness for learning brought Enrico not only to the Royal Conservatory, ESMUC, Siena Jazz to study, but through many trips to New York he had the chance to study with Barry Harris, Peter Bernstein, Mike Moreno, Dave Kikoski, perform and be part of many stimulating local scenes.
He’s constantly around the world as a leader and sideman, being a very active musician internationally, with a fresh and soulful sound, compositionally inspired and true to the jazz tradition.
Musical Activities
Of his latest projects, Common Ground (Zennez Records, 2023) is a swinging hammond quartet featuring Pietro Mirabassi on Tenor Saxophone, Arno Krijger on Hammond Organ and Eric Ineke on the drums, the legendary sideman of jazz heroes such as Dexter Gordon, George Coleman or Ben Webster. The repertoire is entirely composed by Enrico.
Electric Nuts (A.MA Records 2023) it’s a crossover project featuring Matthijs Geerts on keys and bass synth and Egidio Gentile on drums, and explores the sounds of electric instruments through compositions and arrangements that build a bridge between rock, jazz and dance music.
His debut album as a leader, Social Music (A.MA Records 2019), is a celebration of friendship through music and Enrico’s view of the art as a social experience, together with his friends Félix Rossy on trumpet, Gadi Lehavi on piano Giulio Scianatico on Double Bass and Andrea Niccolai on Drums he tells his stories through authentically inspired, broadly influenced jazz compositions. The record has gained acclamation and has been featured as “Record of the Month” by “Musica Jazz”, among many international features.
Sideman
Enrico also participated as a sideman in different projects, as well as two recordings: “New Home” (POCLANOS 2021), a wonderful original project by the Korean bass player and composer Jackson Sang Geun Lee and “Tough Future”, by the incredibly talented Italian alto player Elias Lapia, released in 2023. His network of collaborations and musical adventures is expanding every single day.