Flavio Boltro was born in Turin in Italy on 05/05/1961. His father is a trumpeter and a jazz enthusiast while his mother is a teacher. Immersed in jazz from an early age, at nine he began playing the trumpet, followed by his father, at thirteen he enrolled at the G. Verdi National Conservatory in Turin, where he studied with Carlo Arfinengo (first trumpet of the Turin Symphony Orchestra ) who will follow him to prepare him for the admission exam to the conservatory which he will attend for seven years.

 

ITALIAN PERIOD

At the age of twenty-five he joined a formation, known as Lingomania, with Maurizio Giammarco on sax, Umberto Fiorentino on guitar, Roberto Gatto on drums and Furio Di Castri on bass, which will win the prize for two consecutive the best record and best bands of the year.

More or less in the same period dates the collaboration with Steve Grossman, with whom he performs in international clubs and festivals in quintet with Cedar Walton, Billy Higgins and David Williams in the rhythm section, but also with Clifford Jordan and Jimmy Cobb. Another decisive and original formation for his musical career is the trio with Manhu Roche and Furio Di Castri, then later transformed into a quartet with Joe Lovano.

In 1988 he performed at the Ivrea festival and at the Jazz Club Capolinea in Milan with the great Freddie Hubbard, a two-trumpet quintet. In 1984 he was elected "best talent" of the year by the magazine Musica Jazz and the following year best musician of the year.

 

FRENCH PERIOD

In the early nineties, he forms a quartet with Antonio Faraó on piano, Manhu Roche on drums and Paolino Dalla Porta on bass and performs at the Calvi Festival in Corsica, where he is noticed by composer and arranger Laurent Cugny. In 1993 Cugny chose Boltro and Di Battista as soloists of the O.N.J, the National Jazz Orchestra of Paris. After this three-year experience, he will join Michel Petrucciani's sextet and will be part of it until 1999, the year of the legendary Petrucciani's death.

In 1997 with Stefano Di Battista they form a quintet with Eric Legnini on piano, Benjamin Henocq on drums and Rosario Bonaccorso on bass. In 2000 he begins a collaboration in the Michel Portal quintet, and will remain until 2005. In 2003, Flavio Boltro forms a quartet with Eric Legnini, Remi Vignolo and Franck Agulhon. He records the 40 degree album for Blue Note Record. In 2003, he participates in the AIR trio With Giovanni Mirabassi on the piano and Glenn Ferris on the trombone. The AIR album imports the award as the best international record of the year.

In 2007 the Italian popular singer Gino Paoli realizes a dream: to form a group with jazz musicians and a quintet is born with Flavio Boltro, Roberto Gatto, Danilo Rea and Rosario Bonaccorso and Paolin on vocals. The group recorded two Milestone albums for Blue Note and in 2007 a meeting in jazz, Parco Della Musica label.

In 2011 the ACT Music label proposed to Flavio Boltro to record great Italian opera arias in duo with the pianist Danilo Rea, both having a solid classical background. The album will be recorded in one day (live recording) in Shloss Elmau. The duo is produced today in theaters in Europe and in Asia (Japan, China and South Korea).

In search of the spirit of the extraordinary 1960s, paying homage to trumpeter Lee Morgan, Boltro assembles a new quintet in 2012: Joyful, an All Star quintet, composed of Rosario Giuliani on sax, Pietro Lussu on piano, Andrè Ceccarelli on drums and Darryl Hall on low. Guest vocalist Alex Ligertwood singer of Carlos Santana in the 1970s. In 2008 he formed an Italian quartet with Giovanni Mazzarino on the piano, Marco Micheli on bass and Francesco Sotgiu on drums.

Currently he is producing, waiting to record the album, with his BBB trio, with Mauro Battisti on bass and Mattia Barbieri on drums. In memory of the great Petrucciani Flavio Boltro quartet "Play Petrucciani": Andrea Pozza on piano Paolo Ghetti on bass and Manhu Roche on drums.