Biography
Guido Manusardi ( Chiavenna , 3 December 1935 ) is an Italian pianist and composer .
At the beginning of his career he moved to Switzerland , Germany , the Netherlands , Denmark and finally to Sweden where he lived permanently for five years. It was in Stockholm that Manusardi met Red Mitchell with whom he established a bond of deep friendship and musical collaboration. In 1967 , following an initial return to Italy , he moved to Bucharest where he lived for 7 years, then returned to Italy permanently. His album Live Recorded at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival won the Record Critics' Award and in 1977 his solo Delirium won the same award and Manusardi was named Musician of the Year; he was then invited with his quartet to the Jamboree Jazz Festival in Warsaw .
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In 1978 he was invited to the Montreux Jazz Festival : Guido Manusardi was the first Italian jazzman to be invited to the Festival. Manusardi has played and recorded with many great jazz musicians: Roy Eldridge , Bobby Hackett , Art Farmer , Don Byas , Dexter Gordon , Al Heath , Slide Hampton , Johnny Griffin , Red Mitchell , Lee Konitz , Jimmy Cobb , Jerry Bergonzi , Victor Lewis , Billy Higgins , Cecil Payne , Shelly Manne , Booker Ervin , Joe Venuti , Curtis Fuller , Kay Winding , Jimmy Owens , Lou Donaldson , Joe Morello , Art Taylor , Hal Singer , Sture Nordin , Bjorne Alke , Lennart Aborg , Petur Ostlund Island , Zbigniew Namyslowsky , Niels Henning Orsted Pedersen .
Since 1997 he has been artistic director of the Valtellina Jazz Festival and since 1999 of Musica Viva Jazz Workshop and So Jazz. 2000 was an important year for Guido Manusardi: he was invited by the Director of MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles – to play at the museum with Billy Higgins and Trevor Ware . During the tour Manusardi played with Billy and Trevor at the World Stage – Hot Spot in Hollywood , recording a CD Live – Live at the Hot Spot . Guido Manusardi is one of the very few Italian artists included by Leonard Feather in his Jazz Encyclopaedia . He recently collaborated with the Russian double bassist Yuri Goloubev with whom he recorded in 2006 .
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.