Alessio Menconi
was born in Genoa - Italy on 8th January 1970.
He approached music when he was 8, learning drums. After two years he quit drums for guitar as self-taught.
In
1985 he started studying classical guitar, taking, as an external student, the entrance examination to 5 th year of Music Academy. After that he began his professional career with some of the best Italian musicians.
In
1991 he enters the Giampaolo Casati (trumpet) trio, along with bassist Rosario Bonaccorso. They recorded an album during the same year.
In
1992 he became official guitarist of "Bansigu Big Band". With this band he recorded albums with guests like Enrico Rava and Paolo Fresu (both great trumpet players). During the same year he won the award as "Best Soloist" in Gran Prix du Jazz" (Aosta - Italy).
After that he entered Big Fat Mama, one of the most important Italian blues band. With them he participated in several European Blues Festivals, often with American musicians as guests. He also recorded two CD's with this group.
In
1993 he participated, in Monteroduni - Italy, in "Eddie Lang" contest (the most important competitions for guitarists in Italy), winning the first prize as best italian jazz guitarist.
During the years
1994-1997 he's been playing with pianist Dado Moroni and singer Adrienne West in a tour dedicated to Nat King Cole. They also recorded an album: "Tribute to Nat King Cole".
During
1995-1996 he played all around Italy with "Acoustic Performance" a jazz group led by drummer Billy Cobham.
In
1995 he entered Paolo Conte orchestra. In this role he played in several important theaters and festivals around the World and recorded two CD's: "Una faccia in prestito" and "Tournée 2".
In 1999 he recorded the first album (Argot) under his name, with Piero Leveratto (bass) and Enzo Zirilli (drums).
In 2000, the drummer
Billy Cobham invited Alessio, to play with him and the bass player Stefan Rademacher. With
Cobham he still play sometimes. In the same year, he have been selected to play with ONJ (orchestre national du jazz)Lately,he recorded a cd and is playing with the
"Cheryl Porter group" and he has a new trio with Faso (bass) and Christian Meyer (bass and drums of italian pop stars "Elio e le storie tese".He has a quartet with
Dado Moroni.
with Paolo Conte
In 2003, He partecipated as only italian to the cd
"Voodoo crossing-a tribute to Jimi Hendrix" with
Robben Ford, Steve Lukather, Hiram Bullock, Larry Corryell and many others.
He partecipated in several TV show (RAI and Mediaset) Along with this professional activities Alessio teaches guitar, in music schools
He
performed in: Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, UK, Spain, Austria, Belgium,
Holland, Luxemburg, Poland, Greece, India, Canada and USA.
Here some festivals he partecipated: Montreaux Rock Festival '88,
Genoa Jazz '91,'92 e '98, Ivrea Jazz Festival '93, Monteroduni "Eddie Lang jazz festival" '93, Fano '94, Calvi '94,Bordighera "jazz and blues" '94,'95 e '01, Paris "Olimpya" '95 e '98, Berlin '96,Laigueglia '96 e '99,Seville '97, Den Hag '98, London "Royal Festival Hall" '96 e'99, S.Anna Arresi '97, Nice Jazz Festival '98, SanRemo "Immagine jazz e blues" '97 e '99 Athens Festival '98, Bergamo jazz '99,, "Sori jazz fest." '00 e '01, Andria jazz '00, Adrano jazz '00, San Francisco jazz festival '01, Samois sur Seine "Django festival" '01, Bruxelles jazz fest. '01, Umbria jazz '01, Verona jazz '02, Skopje blues festival '03, Bruxelles jazz fest. '03, Paris "New morning-JVC jazz fest." '03, Calcutta "jazz,blues and beyond" '04 ecc..
Some of the most important Italian musicians he have been playing with:
Paolo Conte, Tullio De Piscopo,
Faso, Christian Meyer, Bansigu Big Band, Columbus Orchestra, Enrico Rava, Franco Cerri, Riccardo Zegna, Dado Moroni, Pippo Matino, Flavio Boltro, Paolo Fresu, Antonio Faraò, Piero Odorici,
Maurizio Giammarco, Marco Tamburini, Salvatore Bonafede ecc.
And non Italians: Billy Cobham, Adrienne West, Danny Gottlieb,
Albert "Tootie" Heath, Red Holloway, Jack Mcduff, Gary Bartz, Bob Mover, Gary Husband, George Robert, Daniel Humair, Carl Anderson, Sangoma Everett, Cheryl Porter, Peter Washington, Pierre Boussaguet, Bobby Durham, Franco Ambrosetti, Johannes Faber, Ronnie Jones etc.
Contacts and Information:
Alessio Menconi
fax +39 010 2463757
e-mail:
mail@alessiomenconi.com
web: www.alessiomenconi.com
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Publishing Date: 02/03/2005
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