Gianluca Petrella was born in Bari in March ’75, he graduated from the Conservatory of his city with top marks in ’94. His career took off immediately, thanks also to the fruitful collaboration with important Italian and international musicians, such as the one as first trombone in the O.F.P. Orchestra, started in 1995 under the direction of Carla Bley, Steve Coleman and Bruno Tommaso. He participated in the compilation “Italian Jazz Today” produced by “Musica Jazz” and included in the January ’96 magazine. In ’97 he spent a period in Germany where he played with various German and Dutch musicians. He collaborates constantly with Enrico Rava, with whom he recorded a large series of important records, and has collaborated with international musicians such as: Steve Swallow, Greg Osby, Carla Bley, Steve Coleman, Tom Varner, Michel Godard, Lester Bowie, Sean Bergin, Hamid Drake, Marc Ducret, Roswell Rudd, Lonnie Plaxico, Ray Anderson, Pat Metheny, Oregon, John Abercrombie, Aldo Romano, Steven Bernstein and the Sun Ra Arkestra conducted by Marshall Allen.
Collaborations with Italian musicians: Enrico Rava (with whom he published important records for ECM), Paolo Fresu and others
He has participated in numerous important international festivals and clubs around the world, including: Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, Rio de Janiero, Oslo, London, Berlin, Umbria Jazz and the Blue Note Jazz Clubs of Tokyo and New York, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Rio Tim Festival, North Sea, Istanbul, Marrakech, Cracow, Belgrade, Jakarta, Skopje, Parc Floral, Park de La Villette and Morning Paris, Les Mans, Groningen, Mannheim, New Orleans, Terraforma, RoBot Festival, Dancity, Portland, Buffalo, Washington, Bimhuis Jazz Amsterdam, Porgy and Bess Vienna, Birdland New York, Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai. He was the only Italian jazz musician to perform in Havana, on the occasion of the International Jazz Day UNESCO 2017.
He is also extremely active in non-jazz territories: he has in fact collaborated with Manu Di Bango, John De Leo, in a duo with Giovanni Lindo Ferretti as well as with various projects dedicated to electronics and related related recording works as in the case of the celebrated “9lazy9 ” (Ninja Tunes) or the acclaimed and now historic Matmos. In relation to this dimension, the collaborations with the famous Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer – in the Re: ECM project – with Moritz von Oswald and with the DJs Nicola Conte and Ralf stand out.
In the palm-res also an extraordinary jazz version of the classic work written by Jon Lord for Deep Purple, presented at the Teatro Asioli in Correggio during 2006. In 2000 he was a member of the Orchester National de Jazz directed by Paolo Damiani. The turning point came in 2004, as a leader and for the important recording contract that linked him with Emi/Blue Note.
Currently, as a leader, he is active with the new quintet “Cosmic Renaissance” (with Mirco Rubegni, Francesco Ponticelli, Federico Scettri and Simone Padovani), a natural evolution of the beloved “Cosmic Band”; the brand new “Trio 70’s” with Michele Papadia and Stefano Tamborrino; the celebrated duo with Giovanni Guidi, “SoupStar”; the solo project “Exp and Tricks”, a true musical journey into the short films of the early years of cinema (original production in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna); in duo with Gabrio Baldacci; the “Tubolibre” quartet with Oren Marshall, Gabrio Baldacci and Cristiano Calcagnile); the quintet of “Il bidone”, the homage to Nino Rota. He is also very active in the field of electronic music, both in terms of recording (his first album “103 Ep” was released for Electronique.it in February 2015) and live performances. He also collaborates with Bobby Previte, Steven Bernstein and Bojan Z’s quartet, Tetraband. Furthermore, alongside Paolo Fresu, Steven Bernstein and Marcus Rojas, he created a truly energetic “wind only” quartet called “Brass Bang!”.
In 2004 he signed a recording contract with Emi/Blue Note.
In 2009 he founded Spacebone Records, his own record label.
In the two-year period 2015/2016 he consolidated and started two important duo collaborations with DJ Gruff and the dancer Luisa Cortesi respectively (project “Liquido”).
Since 2017 he has had a stable collaboration with Jovanotti both on a recording level – he participated in the recording of “In Italia” and “Sbagliato” (“Oh, Vita!”, 2017 Universal Music Group) and the single “Nuova era” (2019) – than in live performances: he was, in fact, part of the band of Jovanotti’s latest tours, Lorenzo Live Tour 2018 and Jova Beach Party 2019
