Luca Dell'Anna

Luca Dell’Anna (Ferrara, October 10, 1975) is an Italian pianist and composer. He grew up surrounded by his father’s records of Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, Harry Belafonte, blues and Italian folk, along with a love for J.S. Bach. His grandfather, an accordion player, stressed melody and tradition. At six he began improvising on a toy piano; formal classical training followed, before turning to funk, fusion, and jazz in his teens, inspired by Tower of Power, Chick Corea and Billy Cobham. Guided by Bruno Cesselli and Andrea Beneventano at “L’Università della Musica” in Rome, he built the jazz foundation he now transmits to students. In 1999 he moved to Milan, immersing in Cuban and African rhythms through musicians like Dany Martinez, expanding his language beyond lyrical jazz piano. As leader, Dell’Anna debuted with Brian Had a Little Plate (2005). The Fourth Door (2012, with Francesco Cusa and Ivo Barbieri) gained international acclaim, ranked among the year’s best by Japan’s Jazz Critique Magazine. His albums Mana (2013), Symbiont (2015) and Human See, Human Do (2018, with Massimiliano Milesi) also received critical praise, the latter listed by Jazzit among the best of 2018. He has performed with Adam Rapa (long-term duo partner), Dave Douglas, Jorge Pardo, Walter Calloni, Ares Tavolazzi, Mauro Negri, Makaya McCraven, Steven Bernstein, Israel Varela, and singers such as Sheila Jordan and Chris Bennett. His versatility includes projects with The Black Beat Movement and the Allan Holdsworth tribute The Nineteen Men of Tain (2023) alongside Mike Stern and Jason Rebello. Tours brought him to Ethiopia, Japan, China, Canada, Portugal, Spain, France, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Ireland and the Canary Islands. Highlights include a China piano duo tour (2018, with Tazio Forte), International Jazz Day in Toronto (2019, with Rich Brown and Marito Marques), and European tours with Adam Rapa. During 2020 he revived the Mana trio, joined URKestra with Dave Douglas and Steven Bernstein for the charity album When, and served as Jazz Ambassador for the Italian Ministry of Education. He also composes soundtracks for the International School of Comics. His latest trio album, Tactile (Artesuono Records, 2024), produced by Stefano Amerio with Alessandro Fedrigo and Luca Colussi, was launched with a Japan tour. Dell’Anna’s music, rooted in Italy yet global in reach, merges rhythmic complexity and improvisational freedom with a voice equally at home in avant-garde and mainstream jazz.