Luca Mannutza

Born in Cagliari in 1968, he approached music at a very young age, thanks to his father who gave him his first piano lessons when he was only 4 years old. Classical studies began at the age of 6, in 1979 he enrolled at the "GP da Palestrina" Conservatory in Cagliari and graduated here at the age of 18 with excellent marks. After years of various experiences, even with progressive rock and fusion groups, he approaches jazz in 1990, favoring a natural predisposition to improvisation and creativity. The intensity of his musical activity in this field began to grow two years later, when he began playing with the Argentine saxophonist Hector Costita and met the New York trumpeter Andy Gravish, with whom he still collaborates. In 1993 he also began to perform alongside the best Italian jazz musicians, including Paolo Fresu, Emanuele Cisi, Maurizio Giammarco, Bebo Ferra. Among the important recognitions achieved in the jazz competitions in which he participated at the beginning of his career, we can list the Ennio Porrino Prize (1981), the special mention of the jury at the Barga Jazz competition (2000), the first prize in the International Massimo Urbani Award (2002), the Audience Award in the International Tramplin Jazz Competition in Avignon, France, as a member of the quartet of saxophonist Max Ionata (2002). Furthermore, in 2002 in Paris, he qualified for the final stage of the international competition Martial Solal, the most prestigious among the jazz competitions dedicated to the piano. In addition to performing solo piano, he plays in duo with saxophonist Max Ionata and in duo with drummer Lorenzo Tucci (Lunar duo), in trio with Luca Bulgarelli and Nicola Angelucci; he also co-directs the Sound Advice quintet together with Andy Gravish, in which Marcello di Leonardo, Luca Bulgarelli and Max Ionata participate and leads a sextet, Sound Six, with Max Ionata, Andy Gravish, Paolo Recchia, Andrea Nunzi and Renato Gattone. Since 2002 he has been part of many important projects of the drummer Roberto Gatto, with whom he has performed in numerous concerts internationally, making recordings for various albums. Since 2002 he still collaborates permanently with Fabrizio Bosso, as organist and pianist, and is part of the High Five, the most representative group of Italian jazz success in the world, sales champion with the album Five for Fun (Blue Note / EMI Italia 2007) and Handful of Soul (Schema 2006) together with Mario Biondi. Also noteworthy is the collaboration with the American trumpeter Jeremy Pelt. Luca Mannutza combines his intense live activity with that of arranger for various artists and recording projects, such as Mario Biondi, Rosalia de Souza, Filippo Tirincanti, Lorenzo Tucci. Luca Mannutza has played in the most important Italian jazz clubs (Torrione Jazz Club, Panic Jazz Club, Cantina Bentivoglio, Alexanderplatz, Blue Note Milano, Pinocchio Jazz Club and many others) and in the world (Blue Note Tokyo, Blue Note Osaka, Sunset and Sunside Paris, Bimhuis Amsterdam, Pizza Express London, Smoke New York, Fat Cat New York) and has participated in numerous events and guest festivals of prestigious institutions such as the Casa del Jazz (Rome), Umbria Jazz, Villacelimontana jazz, Moncalieri Jazz, Pescara Jazz Festival, Ancona Jazz Summer Festival, Rome Jazz Festival, Forma e Poesia nel Jazz (Cagliari), Bologna Jazz Festival, Padova Jazz Festival, Gray Cat Festival, Odio l'estate Festival, Vicenza Jazz, Crossroads Festival and many others in Italy and in the world ( Italian Jazz in New York, Shanghai 2010, Jakarta Jazz Festival, Dubai Jazz Festival, Parc Floral Paris, Italian Jazz in Beijing). He has played with the most important Italian and foreign jazz musicians (Rava, Fresu, Bosso, Boltro, Tamburini, Amato, Scannapieco, Cisi, Giammarco, Bonisolo, Giuliani, DiBattista, Gatto, Sferra, Bonaccorso, B.Casini, Ferra, J.Pelt, J.Frahm, S.Grossman, JDAllen, G.Cleaver, D.Burno,B.Hart) and many others. Many newspapers and major specialized magazines (Jazzit, Musica Jazz, Swing Journal, Jazz Magazine, All About Jazz) have reviewed his recording works, underlining their skill.