Vittorio Mezza, is considered one of the most interesting and original pianist on the new italian jazz scene. With the help of two “supermusicians” as Massimo Moriconi and Ettore Fioravanti gave birth to a musical project of extraordinary artistic depht, great novelty both stylistic and of ideas. It’s remarkable a strong component of swing and interplay, a quality is becoming rarest. The cd suggests some excellent original songs, some evocative themes by Petrucciani, Shorter, Monk and closes with an homage to Nirvana.
He was born in Maddaloni (Italy). After having completed his studies in classical music, he moved to Rome where got his Diploma and Bachelor in jazz music in Jazz Music from the ”S. Cecilia Conservatory of Music”. He lives in Rome and he has attended various courses like the Berklee Summer School to Umbria Jazz, the Seminars and the two-year master of high improvement for Jazz Trios in Siena, the David Liebman Chromatic Jazz Master Class in the USA, The New York International Jazz Workshop in the USA, the Arrangement and Composition Course at the Music University of Rome, etc. He studied under international musicians like D. Liebman, F. D' Andrea, S. Battaglia, P. Damiani, J. Taylor, F. Jegher, D. Sanborn etc., and has performed in many important International Festivals such us the French-Italian Festival of Jazz and Improvisation in Rome with the S. Cecilia Jazz Orchestra; the Roccella Jonica Jazz Festival – where he opened the concert for Wayne Shorter Quartet and then plays with the ethno-jazz ensemble of D. Montenegro - in 2005; the Bitonto Jazz Festival 2007 – where he opened the concert for the Mike Stern Band; the International Music Fest of Rome. He was semifinalist at the TIM in Marseille as well as at the Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition 2005, at which he was the only Italian to compete. He has played in several line-ups including the S. Cecilia Jazz Quartet, in duo with Paolo Damiani and in the P. Damiani Group, in trio with Ettore Fioravanti, Roberto Gatto and in quartet with Aldo Bassi; he has played also with D. Torto, W. Paoli, P. Condorelli, A. Onorato; in the USA with Mike Stephans, Tony Marino, Tony Moreno, Marc Mommaas; in Canada with Alec Walkington and Dave Laing (McGill University of Montréal). He has played in several international theatres and concert-halls such as the Teatro Vespasiano of Civitavecchia, Anfiteatro Romano of Benevento, Teatro Cilea and Maschio Angioino in Napoli, Real Palace of S. Leucio Caserta, Villa Pamphilj – Rome, University of Cosenza, Rome Conservatory Academic Hall, Teatro dei Contrari, Villa Giulia and Palazzo Farnese in Rome, the Deer Head Inn in Delaware GAP – Pennsylvania, USA, Upstairs Jazz Club in Montréal, Quebec...Last year he was selected by the YAMAHA Corporation to be one of the piano and keyboard performers for Italy. He has played on programmes for Rai, Rai Sat and Mediaset. He has recorded the CD "MP2 live" for the Splasc(H) Records Label and the "Solinsieme" for the Domani Musica Music and Discography Editions, still in distribution, and many other self recorded CDs. In 2006 he won the International Competition of Composition "O. Sindici" – Ceccano and the price for which was publication of a collection of original compositions for piano solo featuring a language in the area between jazz and contemporary music, by BÈRBEN International Music Edition. In 2007 he was finalist in the Roma Soundtrack Competition for composers, with an original composition for strings trio and piano. He was been reviewed by some of Italian’s top critics such as Franco Fayenz, Giordano Selini, Vittorio Lo Conte… He was noted in the category ‘best new talents 2006’ in Top Jazz, the Italian Jazz Music Referendum. He is ranked in the list of the most Italian State Music Conservatories (Rome, Venice, Ferrara, Genova, Pesaro, Potenza, Fermo, Frosinone, Trieste, Brescia, Parma, Como, Bari, Alessandria, Torino...). Last April he held a seminar for the Jazz Music class of the ‘S. Cecilia’ Rome Conservatory, about the development of languages in jazz (the topic of his book). He composed Pianogrups vol. 1 e 2 published by Berben Editions, Birth from a bird for piano published by the Florestano Editions. Now, he is working for RAI as music consultant for Italian National Television and he is teaching - as Music Conservatory Professor - for the instruction of the ' jazz piano elements' discipline at the S. Cecilia Conservatory of Rome.
