Giorgio Gaslini †84 (1929 - 2014)

Giorgio Gaslini was an Italian jazz pianist and composer.

He began performing at 13 and recorded with his jazz trio at 16. In the 1950s and 1960s Gaslini performed with his own quartet. He was the first Italian musician mentioned as a "new talent" in the Down Beat poll and the first Italian officially invited to a jazz festival in the USA (New Orleans 1976-77). He collaborated with leading American soloists, such as Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Eddie Gomez, Max Roach, Nacci Alberto, but also with the Argentinian Gato Barbieri and Frenchman Jean-Luc Ponty. He has also adapted the compositions of Albert Ayler and Sun Ra for solo piano, which the Soul Note label has issued. He also composed the soundtrack of Michelangelo Antonioni's La notte (The Night, 1961).