Sergio Salvatore
In the eight years
since he began recording at the remarkable age of 11, Sergio Salvatore's
superb musicianship has led to recordings that have featured such
notable players as Chick Corea, Michael & Randy Brecker, Gary
Burton, Jay Anderson, Danny Gottlieb and William Kennedy, and shows with
- among others - Wynton Marsalis, Dave Grusin, Mel Torme, Tony Bennett,
and Grover Washington, Jr.
Born in 1981,
Sergio began playing at a very early age and was performing in public by
the time he was four. His father, Luciano Salvatore, is a music teacher
who majored in classical piano at Boston University and the Berklee
College of Music. After teaching at Berklee for five years, Luciano
created his own music school North Jersey Music Labs, which specializes
in teaching improvisation. It wasn't long before Sergio became his
father's star pupil.
Early in 1992,
a home video of one of Sergio's performances came to the attention of
the Director of A&R at GRP Records. A live audition at the Salvatore
household followed soon after resulting in the recording of Sergio's
self-titled debut album for the label, cutting seven original tunes and
receiving critically-favorable response to the record.
The 1994
follow-up on GRP, Tune Up, included compositions by Miles Davis, Charlie
Parker, Wayne Shorter, and Chick Corea and led to appearances with the
American Jazz Philharmonic and to performances in Japan, Italy, Canada
and at selected venues in the U.S. including Carnegie Hall and the
Ravinia Jazz Festival. In 1996, Sergio recorded Always A Beginning, an
all-acoustic album for Concord Jazz Records that featured his keyboard
artistry in a trio setting, alongside bassist John Patitucci and drummer
Peter Erskine. Subsequently, Always A Beginning was selected as one of
JazzTimes magazine's favorite albums of the year.
Following his
relationship with Concord Records, Sergio joined the roster of N2K
Encoded Music, a New York based media/technology company focusing on
music and the internet. There he recorded his first decidedly
contemporary jazz recording produced by Chuck Loeb and including
veterans Steve Gadd (drums), Will Lee (bass), John Patitucci (bass),
Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone), Bob Mintzer (soprano saxophone), and
David Charles (Percussion).
Recently,
Sergio has formed a new New York based quintet consisting of Sam
Sadigursky (Saxophones), Mike Pope (Bass), Benny Koonyevsky
(Drums/Percussion), and Luciano Salvatore (Keyboards). Together, they
have been playing at select locations throughout the United States. The
group promises to release a record of their new material in the near
future. While not working with his quintet, Sergio is performing new
original solo piano material at venues around the country.
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