Luca Dell'Anna

By Jakob Bækgaard

Italian pianist and composer Luca Dell’Anna was born on October 10, 1975 in Ferrara, a historical city with strong ties to jazz. He grew up listening to his father’s extensive record collection including Count Basie, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte and blues recordings together with Italian folk music.

His father also had a classical collection and Dell’Anna quickly fell in love with the music of J.S. Bach. Another important influence was Dell’Anna’s grandfather, who played the accordion and stressed the importance of tradition and melody.

The piano came into his life when he started playing a toy piano with friends at the age of six and discovered the world of improvisation. When he was in sixth grade, he was encouraged to take piano lessons, and this was the beginning of many years of education in classical music.

A new path opened that would eventually lead to his rebirth as a jazz musician. At 16, he started playing in funk-fusion bands that played the repertoire of Tower of Power, Chick Corea, Billy Cobham and other fusion heroes from his youth.

The discovery of jazz language resulted in Dell’Anna taking lessons with notable Italian pianist Bruno Cesselli and he would later attend “L’Università della Musica” in Rome under the tutelage of the great bop pianist Andrea Beneventano.

To this day, the teachings of Beneventano still provide the foundation of the lessons Dell’Anna gives to his own students.

At the heart of Dell’Anna’s sound lies a complex understanding of rhythm that goes beyond the generic sound of modern lyrical jazz piano. Part of the reason for this is his discovery of Cuban music and Latin rhythms: “I had very close friends who were big fans of Cuban music and I also started to listen to and learn proper Salsa music, in addition to Latin jazz: Chucho Valdes, Eddie Palmieri and my real big crush, Gonzalo Rubalcaba.”

In 1999, Dell’Anna moved to Milano to become a part of the vibrant music scene. He soon got in touch with the Cuban Latin jazz community and became a companion of great Cuban musicians such as Dany Martinez, who initiated him into the concepts and theories of Cuban and African music.

As a musician in demand, he played many gigs in various genres but started to focus on jazz and in 2005 he released the album “Brian Had a Little Plate” with Rootless Ensemble together with Simone Guiducci, Danilo Gallo, Francesco Bigoni, Massimiliano Sorrentini.

After a period of two months in Japan to work in grand show “Evolution” for Aimachi Marching Band 50th anniversary In 2012, he released the acclaimed album “The Fourth Door” with the trio “Tan T’Ien” with Francesco Cusa and Ivo Barbieri. In 2013, the album was chosen as the third best album of the year by the prestigious Japanese jazz magazine, “The Jazz Critique Magazine”. Tracks from “The Fourth Door” and his first album as a leader, “Mana” (2013), were included on Japanese samplers of the best of jazz chosen by highly respected Japanese jazz critic Yasukuni Terashima. “The Jazz Critique Magazine” also included his second album as a leader, “Symbiont”, among the best jazz albums of 2015.

Dell’Anna’s third album as a leader, “Human See, Human Do” (2018), digresses from the trio language by including award-winning saxophonist Massimiliano Milesi, and it was included among the Greatest Jazz Albums of 2018 by Italian JAZZIT Magazine.

He has also explored other formats playing Hammond Organ with the great Italian drummer Walter Calloni’s group and in a duo with worldwide acclaimed trumpeter Adam Rapa that is still touring actively. Rapa also commissioned him to write compositions and arrangements for his musical “Evolution”, which was performed live at Nagoya Century Hall, Japan in 2012. As a composer, renown Italian Pianist Michele Francesconi has asked him to compose music for his “Seasons” upcoming piano trio project. As a sideman, Dell’Anna has collaborated with many Italian and international artists including Adam Rapa, Dave Douglas, Jorge Pardo, Walter Calloni, Ares Tavolazzi, Steven Bernstein, Michael Mondesir, Roland Stzenpali, Mauro Negri, Zane Wayne Massey, Makaya McCraven, Yturvides, Giorgio di Tullio, Giulio Visibelli, Maxx Furian, Alessandro Carreri, Daniel Kollé, Donato Scolese, with singers Serena Ferrara, Mila Trani, Elisabeth Breines Vik, Alice Lenaz, Sheila Jordan, Chris Bennett and the acclaimed drummer Israel Varela, who is also a part of his “Mana” trio with bassist Ivo Barbieri.

Dell’Anna’s musical versatility has secured appearances on albums by such stylistically different artists as the alternative soul collective “The Black Beat Movement” and the Nordic singer Elisabeth Breines Vik.

In 2023 he appeared in Allan Holdsworth tribute album “The Nineteen men of Tain” by Enrico Pinna together with worldwide acclaimed artists such as Mike Stern, Jason Rebello, Paul Wertico, Bob Franceschini, Enzo Zirilli.

In his own work, Dell’Anna has refined an open jazz style between avantgarde and mainstream with a flexible yet structured approach to phrasing and improvisation. He has toured extensively with his music and appeared at numerous festivals around the world.
He toured in many countries including Ethiopia, Japan, China, Canada, Belarus, Portugal, Poland, Denmark, Ukraine, Slovakia, Ireland, Spain, France, Canary Islands. In 2018, he embarked on a big piano duo tour of China with fellow pianist Tazio Forte, and in Canada with bassist Rich Brown and drummer Marito Marques to celebrate International Jazz Day 2019 in Toronto.
He also toured with Adam Rapa in the Canary Islands, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Galicia, Lithuania, France together with great ensembles such as Spanish Brass, Kaustika and Rapa’s quartet featuring Jeremy Bruyère and Rafael Pannier. During the lockdown in 2020 his work didn’t stop, collaborating with many great musicians, coming back to his original “Mana” trio, invited by the Toronto Italian Culture Institute.

He participated as a member of “URKestra” collective at the recording of “When”, album for collecting funds for Italian hospitals, featuring Dave Douglas and Steven Bernstein on trumpet.

For the International Jazz Day 2020-21 he was an ambassador for the Italian Ministry of Education, bringing Jazz to 1st and 2nd grade Schools.

He also collaborates with the International School of Comics as a Soundtrack composer.

His upcoming trio album, “Tactile”, featuring Italian acclaimed bass player and drummer Alessandro Fedrigo and Luca Colussi, released in 2024, is produced by the award-winning sound engineer Stefano Amerio for Artesuono records.

All of these diverse experiences live together underlining the global nature of Luca Dell’Anna’s music that is rooted in Italy, but at home in the world.

Awards

Amongst the "Best Jazz Albums of the Year" 2013-2015, "The Jazz Critique Magazine". "Greatest Jazz Albums of 2018", JAZZIT Magazine