Gianni GEBBIA

Soprano, alto and sopranino saxophonist, self-taught, Gianni Gebbia made his debut in 1979 in New York in the loft jazz scene, influenced by saxophonists such as Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and Arthur Blythe. He has also collaborated with jazz musicians like Peter Kowald, Raul Ruiz and Jim O’Rourke.

In 1990, Gianni Gebbia won the First Prize of the Top Jazz poll of the Italian magazine Musica Jazz. He is the founder of the record label objet-a and organizer of the improvised music festival Curva Minore and Anassimandro, a festival of musico-philosophy.

From the 2000s until 2012, he visited Japan every year to study Zen meditation with Shodo Harada Roshi of the Rinzai Zen school in Okayama, and made films about the relationship between Western culture and Japan: Asakusa No Brecht (2010), Nanbanjin (2011) and O’Tama Monagatari on the life of Japanese painter O’Tama Kiyohara.

Gianni Gebbia is considered one of the leading specialists of the circular breathing technique on the saxophone and of solo performances. He has participated in numerous festivals such as Banlieues Bleues (Paris), Total Music Meeting (Berlin), Northsea Jazz Festival, Festival de Victoriaville, Bolzano Jazz Summer, Noci Festival, Ruhr Triennale Essen.

He collaborates regularly with German composer Heiner Goebbels and took part in the performance Everything that happened and will happen (MIF Festival Manchester, Theatre Olympics Saint Petersburg, New York Armory Hall). He also performed in duo with Heiner Goebbels from 2018 (Unheorth Festival Zurich, Teatro Massimo Palermo).