Leo_Genovese

Leo Genovese

Leo Genovese

Argentine jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer


Leonardo Genovese (born 1979) is an Argentine jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer. He has played with The Mars Volta.

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Life and career

Genovese was born in Venado Tuerto, Argentina, in 1979.[1] He began playing the piano at the age of 5 or 6, but became more interested in playing around ten years later.[1]

Genovese began studying music and accounting at the University of Rosario, but soon abandoned accountancy, and in 2001 he began studying at the Berklee College of Music.[1] He graduated in 2003.[1] His first album, Haiku II, was released the following year and was followed by Unlocked in 2008, but Genovese later talked them down, stating that they were "just a way to document where I was at the time".[1] From 2005 he recorded and toured internationally with bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding.[1]

A reviewer for The New York Times commented on Genovese's 2013 album, Seeds, that, "by refusing to privilege one historical style over another, he strengthens his claim as a polyglot".[2] Down Beat observed that Genovese's compositions for the album "share an exploratory nature, whether the new terrain in question is a marriage of electronic and acoustic sounds, an unlikely use of chromatic scaling or the successful juxtaposition of otherwise disparate ideas."[3]

Wayne Shorter & Leo Genovese, soloist won a Grammy Award for Best Improvised Jazz Solo for the Wayne Shorter composition "Endangered Species" for which Leo accompanied him on the album Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival.[4] Genovese won the DownBeat Critics Award for Rising Star – Piano in 2023.[5]

Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

As leader/co-leader

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As sideman

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References

  1. "Leonardo Genovese" (PDF). Den Entertainment. 5 February 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 February 2015. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  2. Chinen, Nate (August 12, 2013) "CDs From K. Michelle and Leo Genovese". The New York Times.
  3. Odell, Jennifer (October 2013) "Leo Genovese – Seeds". Down Beat. p. 67.
  4. "Leo Genovese". grammy.com. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  5. "71st Annual Critics Poll: Complete Results". DownBeat. Vol. 90, no. 8. August 2023. p. 47.
  6. Le Gendre, Kevin (December 2023 – January 2024). "Ohad Talmor: Back to the Land". Jazzwise. No. 291. pp. 42–43.

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