"Piero Bittolo Bon is one of the busiest and most in demand italian musicians in the italian jazz and avant-garde scene. He mainly plays alto saxophone but is also at ease on baritone saxophone, flutes and clarinets. Piero has also had a long-standing affair going on with the electric bass, which he played at the beginning of his musical journey in funk, reggae, and rock bands, before committing himself to wind instruments and improvised music. Passionate and vibrant, his music, densely composed or totally improvised, reverberates with echoes of the best of free jazz, fire music, torrid improvisations and chamberesque compositions, sharp attacks and continuous inventions bar after bar.

Member of the fresh and much regarded italian collective/record label El Gallo Rojo Records, he's currently leading his own quintet, Bread & Fox with Filippo Vignato on trombone, Alfonso Santimone on piano, Glauco Benedetti on tuba and Andrea Grillini on drums. Other notable bands he leads are his Jümp The Shark sextet with Gerhard Gschloessl on tuba and trombone, Domenico Caliri on guitars, Pasquale Mirra on vibes, Danilo Gallo on bass and Federico Scettri on drums, and "Rollerball", a rock-oriented jazz quintet with Beppe Scardino on bari sax, Enrico Terragnoli on guitar, Danilo Gallo on bass and Massimiliano Sorrentini on drums, not mentioning the many other bands he's involved in, mainly with his Gallo Rojo fellows and with other major italian musicians. In 2010 he was called to be part of a new Uri Caine project, "Pulse". His "Original Pigneto Stompers" outfit features giant of electric bass Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Simone Massaron on guitars and Federico Scettri and Massimiliano Sorrentini on double drums. One of his most recents projects, "Lacus Amoenus", involves the great trumpet player Peter Evans.

His interest in finding new sounds and new improvisational languages brought him to design a special microphone system allowing to control and play the feedback that is generated inside the saxophone tube. This "augmented" alto saxophone is featured in his solo project "SPELUNKER".

He performed an recorded with italian artists such as Danilo Gallo, Zeno de Rossi, Beppe Scardino, Enrico Terragnoli, Stefano Senni, Francesco Bigoni, Massimiliano Sorrentini, Achille Succi,Tiziana Ghiglioni, Tiziano Tononi, Daniele Cavallanti, Francesco Cusa, Domenico Caliri, Giovanni Maier, U.T. Gandhi, Simone Massaron, Silvia Bolognesi, John De Leo and with musicians like Anthony Braxton, Uri Caine, Peter Evans, Steve Lehman, John Tchicai, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Lukas Ligeti, Gino Robair, Jessica Lurie, Andrew Drury, Neil Leonard, Ernest Dawkins, Vincent Davis, Craig J. Green, Tristan Honsinger, Gerhard Gschloessl, Christian Lillinger, Tobias Delius, Mark Solborg, Marc Lohr, Lisa Mezzacappa, Jason Levis and many others.

In 2011 Piero founded his own netlabel, R'Ufo Records.

He recorded for labels such as El Gallo Rojo Records, Auand Records, Aut Records, Clean Feed Records, Long Song Records, Splasch Records, Improvvisatore Involontario, NuBop Records, Materiali Sonori, Psychonavigation Records, Caligola Records."

"I was born in Milan in 1971.

I began studying piano with my father Sergio, an orchestra conductor. In the first 16 years of my life I played different instruments (piano, guitar, bass, drums) in various local bands, creating a multi-instrumental background that influenced my way of playing and conceiving the guitar. From the age of 16 I dedicated myself exclusively to guitar and jazz, studying with Massimo Minardi and Roberto Cecchetto and participating in masterclasses with Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell and Mick Goodrick.

For more than twenty years I have also dedicated myself with passion and energy to teaching the guitar.

My style on the instrument shows my eclecticism and my tendency to easily pass through genres, such as radical improvisation, free avant-garde, live looping but also pre-war blues and the re-musicing of silent films.

I love the guitar in all its forms. I have always experimented directly on the structure of the instrument (I have a diploma in lutherie), I have approached and modified various types of instruments, including the fretless guitar, and I continue my research every day.

I have had the pleasure of collaborating with Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, Tiziana Ghiglioni, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Rob Mazurek, Peter Evans, Gianluca Petrella, Steve Piccolo, Gak Sato, Leena Conquest, Xabier Iriondo, Giovanni Maier, Tiziano Tononi, Daniele Cavallanti, Jenny Scheinman, Zeno de Rossi, Massimo Pupillo, Giulio Corini, Piero Bittolo Bon, Craig Green, Scott Amendola and many others."

"Few musicians reshape the DNA of their instrument so completely that an entire genre has to rewrite its rules. Electric bassist, composer, producer, arranger, and cultural curator Jamaaladeen Tacuma has spent over four decades doing exactly that. A native Philadelphian renowned for his harmolodic phrasing, fearless agility, and impeccable sartorial presence, Tacuma shattered the traditional boundaries of the electric bass, transforming it from a purely supportive anchor into a commanding frontline voice of avant-garde freedom and razor-sharp funk.

Tacuma first shook the musical landscape in the mid-1970s when legendary saxophonist and theorist Ornette Coleman drafted him into his historic electric ensemble, Prime Time. Tacuma's kinetic, highly melodic playing powered landmark albums including Dancing in Your Head, Body Meta, and Of Human Feelings. By 1983, he launched his solo recording career on Gramavision with Show Stopper, followed by seminal titles including Renaissance Man, Music World, and JukeBox, alongside his genre-bending electro-funk project Cosmetic. His signature sound made history when he garnered the highest number of votes ever cast for an electric bassist in the DownBeat International Critics Poll's "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" category.

Beyond his groundbreaking work with Coleman, Tacuma has consistently collaborated across the vanguard of modern music. His expansive credits include recordings and stages with icons such as Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Stevie Nicks, Bob Weir, Brad Paisley, Steve Jordan, Marc Ribot, Grover Washington Jr., David Murray, Odean Pope, James Blood Ulmer, Derek Bailey, and Peter Murphy (Bauhaus). His production acumen and dynamic versatility have moved effortlessly from symphonic stages with Anthony Davis at Carnegie Hall to collaborations with hip-hop pioneers The Roots, DJ King Britt, DJ Logic, Kindred the Family Soul, and legendary poets Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, and Quincy Troupe. As a producer and collaborator, he helped define modern power-trio improvisation with Free Form Funky Freqs (alongside Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid and drummer G. Calvin Weston on Urban Mythology and Bon Vivant) and honored his musical mentor with the acclaimed tribute For the Love of Ornette.

Today, Tacuma remains a prolific force in global producing, recording and live performance. His recent production achievements include helming the historic centennial release Marshall Allen's 101: An Audio Odyssey (Ropeadope) for the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra leader, producing hip-hop forebears The Last Poets on their defining opus Transcending Toxic Times, producing multiple studio albums for acclaimed Austrian vocalist Simone Kopmajer, and anchoring the powerhouse Quantum Blues Quartet alongside Tisziji Muñoz, Paul Shaffer, and Will Calhoun.

Driven by the conviction that music is a sacred bridge uniting humanity, Tacuma continues to lead global cultural diplomacy initiatives. His cross-cultural dialogues span ancestral Gnawa trance traditions in Morocco (Gnawa Soul Experience), microtonal folk explorations in Turkey, and traditional drumming and court music partnerships across South Korea, Japan, and Europe. In addition to serving as Founder and Artistic Director of Philadelphia's celebrated Outsiders Improvised & Creative Music Series, Tacuma serves as a Cultural Ambassador for the Third Way Cultural Alliance, actively championing intelligent contemporary music as art, fostering international creative exchanges, and spearheading salon experiences that unite master musicians with visionary visual artists.

Tacuma's pioneering contributions have earned top honors, including the Pew Fellowship in the Arts, the City of Philadelphia Benny Golson Award and Liberty Bell Medal, the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Hero Award, the Marcus Garvey Foundation 50th Anniversary Award, the Visa For Music Honor (Morocco), and prestigious fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, Headlands Center for the Arts, Civitella Ranieri (Italy), and South Arts.

An artist of boundless creative energy, Jamaaladeen Tacuma continues to run his record label Jam All Productions, curate his Outsiders Improvised & Creative Music Series and tour worldwide, bringing joy, sonic innovation, and uncompromising groove to audiences across the globe."