b. Edgardo Moroni, 20 October 1962, Genoa, Italy. Moroni began playing piano as a tiny child, encouraged by a very musical family background. Although his father was a dance band singer and his grandfather an opera singer, he turned to jazz and in his early teenage years also took up the bass. Some of his early influences came through his father’s record collection, which included artists such as Erroll Garner, Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, Art Tatum and Fats Waller. During the 70s and early 80s his experience and his reputation grew and he worked not only with noted Italian musicians, such as Franco Ambrosetti and Gianni Basso, but also with visiting American artists. Over the years, these included Freddie Hubbard, James Moody and Clark Terry. He was a member of a trio led by Jimmy Woode, played with Mingus Dynasty, and toured extensively with a wide range of mainstream, hard bop and contemporary jazz artists. His reputation solidified in the USA owing to numerous visits and high profile concerts and well-received albums, on which he appeared as a sideman, with Ray Brown, Jesse Davis, Tom Harrell, and Lee Konitz. Although his stylish and vigorous playing is heavily bop influenced, Moroni’s performances often reveal touches of those early piano influences, Waller and Tatum for example, which help bring to his playing a satisfyingly broad texture.