Augusto Pirodda
Bio: Hi everybody! I was born in Sardinia, beautiful beautiful place,and I started playing the piano when I was 6. What I was doing at that time was not very interesting I have to say, but , you know, I was pretty young. Anyway, I learned by heart all my father's repertoire, he's also a piano player,which was mostly about Pop songs from the sixties. This came to be a useful thing later,when I started to do gigs in sardinia, because I knew all the good songs for occasions like weddings, new year's eve,and blah blah blah!! Later I've found out that there was other music also and I get in contact with the jazz, fusion and things like that. I remember a friend of mine, good saxophone player Marcello Carro, asking me when I was more or less 17, to do a jazz band.I said to him "Yes!!Great!!Let's do that!!But...what is jazz?"(I still didn't find any answer)! Well, this thing now is getting a bit too long!I'll try to make it shorter! Conservatory in Cagliari With Franco Oppo(Experimental Composition), several workshops (John Taylor, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, Paolo Fresu, Ettore Fioravanti, Furio Di castri, Jimie Mc Lean, Ralph Towner, Franco D'andrea, Roberto Cipelli, Danilo Rea, Stefano Battaglia,and others). Different musical experiences by playing Jazz,fusion,Reggae,Rhythm and Blues,Folk music,Pop music. Graduated in the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Den Haag. Teachers:Rob van Kreeveld, Frans Elsen, Rob van Bavel, Bert van den Brink. I have a cd released by the Splas(H) records where I play piano duo with Michal Vanoucek on the other piano.This duo is called To be or not bop? I've worked for many years with a vocal trio called Balentes and meanwhile we were working together we released two records were I worked as a piano player,composer and arranger. The first record is called Balentes and the second is called Cantano. Now I have a trio with Manolo Cabras on bass and Marek Patrman on drums, a quartet with the same two wonderful guys plus Ben Sluijs on sax(Augusto Pirodda Quartet), another one with Lynn Cassiers on voice (MALM), and some other more or less frequent collaborations with other musicians that are living in Brussels (Nicola Lancerotti, Daniele Martini, Antonio Tonie' Pisano, Joe Higham, Hugo Antunes, Joao Lobo, Giovanni Di Domenico).I'm working also with a fantastic dancer,actress and performer Neel De Jong. We do a duo performance completely improvised.Working with her it has been and is still one of the strongest and intense experiences I've ever lived.Grazie Neel! Well, I think for the moment is enough! When something else will come to my mind I'll write it. Ah!!I just made a piano solo record which is called "Moving". I hope you'll like it otherwise pazienza Ciao ciao Gus P.S. 4 APRIL 2009 I had the honour to meet and play with two legends of jazz music. Gary Peacock and Paul Motian We made a trio recording in the Systems two studios in Brooklyn, very very good studio. I don't want to talk about the music we made together, but I really want to thank Gary and Paul for their spirit and their generosity. I strongly hope to have the opportunity to play once more with you guys. you are really great artists thanks a lot!!! Augusto P.S.2 This record called "No Comment" will soon be released by the German Berlin-based Jazz Werkstaat
