PRESTI – LANZONI duo, ITALY
Alessandro Presti – trumpet
Alesandro Lanzoni – piano
Born in Sicily in 1988, Alessandro Presti first completed his classical studies and then entered the world of jazz. In 2007, he won the Third Prize and the audience award at Vittoria Rotary Jazz Award. Since 2011, he has been a member of the famous American bassist Eddie Gomez’s Italian quartet with whom he has performed at many important festivals. In 2012 Alessandro won the National jazz contest Chicco Bettinardi and in 2014 was ranked second at the international competition Premio Massimo Urbani, winning also the critics’ prize and the audience’s award. Since 2014 he has been working with the drummer Roberto Gatto as a member of his quartet. In 2017 they won the referendum for the Best Italian band. In 2015 he went on tour with the saxophonist Lew Tabackin. In 2016 he made his first recording as a leader – the album Halaesa with Alessandro Presti Quintet. Also in 2016, he joined the Stefano di Battista quintet and performed with them in Chengdu (China). Again, in 2016 he started working with Francesco Cafiso Nonet, performed at Umbria Jazz and recorded together the album We Play for Tips. In 2018, as a member of the Roberto Gatto Quartet, he joined Kurt Rosenwinkel for his tour and played at some of the best jazz clubs in New York. He continues to play with Eddie Gomez, Jorge Rossy, Seamus Blakem, Salvatore Bonaferde, Dario Deidda, Rita Marcotulli, Pietro Tonolo and many more.
Since tender age, the name of the Florentine pianist Alessandro Lanzoni has been listed in the posters of the most important Italian music festivals (Umbria Jazz, Ravello Festival, Roma Casa del Jazz). He has had many important achievements to his credit as the prize for Best New Talent at Top Jazz 2013 of Musica Jazz and the Best young soloist of the Martial Solal International Jazz Piano competition in Paris. In July 2014 at the Siena Jazz Festival he had the opportunity to perform alongside great American musicians such as Ambrose Akinmusire, Jeff Ballard, Larry Grenadier, Ben Street, Steven Bernstein and Miguel Zenon. In 2014 Alessandro was in Spain for concerts with the band of the American guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel.
In 2013 he released Dark Flavour (CAM JAZZ), his second album as a leader of the trio with Matteo Bortone (double bass) and Enrico Morello on drums and made their first Italian tour and the trio continues to actively make music and perform. He proved himself to be a successful leader and he has by now been proud of international success in Europe, Latin America, Israel and the USA, where he has received highly positive reviews, which is not so common for a foreign artist. After having heard him in Piano Solo at the UN Building, Ira Gitler – from the heights of his seventy years’ of pure jazz history – stated in his column for Jazz Improv. NY: ”He shouldn’t be judged as a young musician. He is already exceptional and with every probability he will become even more so”..