Antonio Fusco Quintet - Peaceful Soul (2022)

Antonio Fusco began playing drums at the age of six in Solofra, his hometown, thanks to his father, ex drummer active in the 70’s. He began performing with rock and blues bands already at the age of ten and when he was fourteen, following the advice of his father, he started deepening the drum studies at the C.M.C in Roccapiemonte (Italy) with Master Rocco Salzano.

After two years of lessons at the C.M.C, he decided to take private lessons with Master Walter Calloni (P.F.M, AREA, LINEA C). An intensive and continuous connection starts with Master W. Calloni bringing Antonio’s interest even more towards jazz music and great Masters such as Roy Hines, Jack De Jonette, Tony Williams and Art Blakey.

In 1998 he decided to move definitively to Milan and in 1999 / 2000 he graduated at the C.P.M with top marks.

While his interest is growing up towards a search of sound and style personalisation in jazz and experimental music, he doesn’t miss experiences even in pop, rock, funk, classical, soul and Italian popular music, together with composers, Italian pop artists and songwriters, like the Italian singer-songwriter Ilaria Pastore, with whom he has collaborated since 2005 and he recorded the album Nel mio disordine, or like SUSHY with whom he recorded the album Faccio Quello Che Voglio for Universal Musica Italy and Paolo Vallesi with whom he played during the Italian tour 2004, Pensiero Libero.

In 2006, as drummer and percussionist, he recorded the soundtrack of the Italian comedy film “Anplagghed al cinema” by the Italian comedians Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo, a film directed by Arturo Brachetti and Rinaldo Gaspari, ranging from rock to Hollywood big band music.

In 2001 he took part to the recording sessions of the concept album “SCREAMING DEVOTION 24 Nonhours for a longed for love”, by the pianist/composer Danilo Amici, together with a big orchestra composed of 40 elements.

In 2003, along with Osvaldo Di Dio and Vincenzo Virgillito, he established the project Portrait En Jazz Méditerranéen, aka P.J.M - Post Jazz Mistress, first professional group in jazz environment, with which he recorded two albums and played in several national festivals.

In 2006, he started an intensive concert activity, which is currently going on, with the great Italian jazz guitarist Gigi Cifarelli, with whom he recorded in 2009 the live album“GIGI CIFARELLI LIVE IO C’ERO”, at the historic jazz club in Milan, Le Scimmie.

Antonio Fusco has performed in theatres, festivals and Jazz Clubs among the most important in Europe, Asia and Africa, like Blue Note Milan, Blue Note Beijing, Ronnie Scott’s (London), Pizza Express (London), Vortex Jazz Club (London), Le Scimmie (Milan), JZ Club (Hangzou), JZ Club (Shanghai), Arab Arts Festival (Liverpool), London Jazz Fetival, Jazzamba (Addis Abbeba), Auditorioum Parco Della Musica (Rome), Umbria Jazz (Perugia), Teatro Regio (Parma), Rich Mix (London), European Jazz Expo (Cagliari, Sardinia), Time in Jazz (Berchidda, Sardinia), Maputo Jazz Festival (Mozambique), Johannesburg Jazz festival, Auditorium Antonianum (Rome), Altes Pfandhaus (Cologne) and many others.

In July 2011, he graduated at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of Milan with highest honours under the guide of Masters Tino Tracanna, Attilio Zanchi and Stefano Bagnoli.

Driven by a big determination and desire to create a project as leader, during the graduation thesis, he established the project “ANTONIO FUSCO SEXTET - Suite for Motian”, a tribute to Bill Evans music and the celebrated drummer Paul Motian.

Since 2011, he has being collaborating with the Italian avant-garde trumpeter Giovanni Falzone's performing with him a tour in Africa in 2012 with his Around Ornette project (winner of the 2011 contest as Best Album of the Year) and several jazz festivals in Italy. A few years later, in 2014, he joined in the Giovanni Falzone Contemporary Orchestra's playing in various concert halls, theatres, festivals and recording the album Giovanni Falzone Contemporary Orchestra - Led Zeppelin Suite released in 2016 for Musicamorfosi Productions and Maccalube Records.

In 2012 he joined the new quintet of the Italian saxophonist Tino Tracanna Acrobats along with Paolino Dalla Porta on double bass, Roberto Cecchetto on guitar and Mauro Ottolini on trombone. The first album, Acrobats was released with the Italian label Abeat Records for Jazz in 2012. The album scored the third place in the magazine Musica & Dischi as the best album of 2013.

In 2014, Antonio Fusco released the album “Antonio Fusco Sextet - Suite for Motian” with the prestigious Italian label Auditorium Parco Della Musica Records, gaining remarkable critical praises.

Always in 2014, he started his New Simplicity Trio project, along with Anglo-American pianist Bruno Heinen and the Danish bassist Henrik Jensen. The first trio album's called Common Spaces was recorded at the Porcupine Studio in London in June 2015 and will be released on June the 23rd, 2017 with the prestigious English label BB Records (Babel Label).

In 2014 September, he got the honour of being quoted in the New Italian Jazz Dictionary’s, written by Flavio Caprera, edited by Feltrinelli Edizioni.

In 2015, he recorded the new album of Tino Tracanna quintet Acrobats "Red Basic" for the label Auditorium Parco Della Musica Records. In 2016, the album scored the third place in the contest Top Jazz 2016 launched by the national magazine MUSICA JAZZ as the best group of the year 2016.

In 2016 the album "24 Nonhours for a longed for love" by the pianist – composer Danilo Amici, gained the award as best album of alternative rock music launched by THE AKADEMIA MUSIC AWARDS of Los Angeles.

Over the years, Antonio Fusco has developed a remarkable curriculum, playing with artists such as: Tim Berne, Paolo Fresu, Francesco Bearzatti, Li Gaoyang, Li Xiaochuang, Zhou Xia, Reem Kelani, Garrison Fewell, Nick Hampton, Yuhan Su, Henrik Jensen, Tom Challenger, Claudio Fasoli, Michael Gassmann, Bruno Hinen, Martin Cjakonovski, Steve Watts, Kristian Borring, George Crowley, Esben Tjalve, Andre Canniere, Yuri Goloubev, Ronnie Jones, Giovanni Falzone,Tino Tracanna, Ilaria Pastore Trio, Lynn Cassiers, Peter Ehwald, Paolino Dalla Porta, Danilo Gallo, Beppe Caruso, Gabriele Mirabassi, Alberto Mandarini, Bebo Ferra, Roberto Cecchetto, Antonio Zambrini, Attilio Zanchi, Gigi Cifarelli, Riccardo Fioravanti, Bruno De Filippi, Mario Rusca, Rosario Giuliani, Riccardo Bianchi, Ronnie Jones, Rob Suddhut, Andrea Pozza, Aida Cooper, Vito Di Modugno, Marco Detto, Dario De Idda, Gendrixon Mena ,Alberto Gurrisi, Luciano Milanese, Nando De Luca, Mark Harrison, Mario Zara, Antonio Onorato, Marco Brioschi, Michele Bozza, Simone Schirru, Valerio Scrignoli, Francesco Chiapperini, Marco Taraddei, Massimiliano Milesi, Mattia Cigalini, Giulio Martino, Marco Bianchi, Andrea Di Biase, Francesco Chiapperini, Gianluca Elia, Dario Trapani, Massimo Scoca, Roman Fuchs, Chris Fehre, Daniel Manrique Smith, Jose Diaz de Leon, Yassmò, Lorenzo Petrocca, Alberto Marsico.

Antonio Fusco’s press review consists of articles, interviews and reviews on magazines, newspapers and e-zines of high European profile, such as Jazzit Magazine, Musica Jazz, Batteria & Percussioni, Musicateneo, Senza Barcode, La Repubblica, Il Corriere della Sera. He has also been frequently hosted by Radio Broadcastings like "RADIO RAI 3 Piazza Verdi" and "JAZZ INSIDE by Kristal Radio, both with his own groups (Antonio Fusco Sextet and New Simplicity Trio), and along with other bands like ACROBATS, and "The Giovanni Falzone Contemporary Orchestra's ".

His deep knowledge of the drums, the innate versatility and mastery of the various musical languages, enabled Antonio Fusco to record over fourth’s albums as side-man, ranging from jazz, rock, funk, pop music, blues to Avant-garde music, and four albums as leader and co-leader.

Furthermore, he is the author of the drums method “Coordination - Advanced method for a complete coordination development on drums”, edited by Esarmonia Publishing.

As a teacher Antonio Fusco is active promoter of his own masterclass focused on “The search of the Style – Search and Development of an own musical language” and he performed several workshops on jazz improvisation. Both masters are been organized in Europe (Italy and Germany), Africa (Addis Abeba) and China (Hangzhou, Shanghai Conservatory).

Recently, in the 2019, he founded the Antonio Fusco 5et featuring the American trumpet player Noah Linn Hocker, Yasuhiro Kohama (tenor & soprano), Yuki Hirata (piano) and Satoshi “Tokuda” Matsumoto (bass). The first album was recorded in the September 2019 and it will be released with the Japanese label CUG records based in Nagoya city.

Since 2017 August he is drums teacher at the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy and he was part as judge and drums teacher in several drum completions around China such us the IPEA drums competition and masterclasses at the Shanghai Conservatory.

Since 2019, he is an international Dixon Drums and recently a new collaboration with Yamamoto Art Cymbal based in Tokyo.