La Dolce Vita, Eight and a Half, The Godfather...Nino Rota has presented some of his most famous themes to the cinema. A musical imagination that inspires Giovanni Mirabassi. This piano of unbridled lyricism, this way of celebrating melody for melody, the Italian pianist is one of the few to campaign in this way.

"I had the urgent need to continue my dialogue with music, which began at the age of two on the family piano. At the time, he was the only one who answered me when I spoke to him. I couldn't have been anything other than a pianist."

At 7, he knows how to play by ear all the preludes of Bach's well-tempered keyboard, then discovers jazz at the Perugia Festival, cracks his pocket money in the records of Monk, Miles and Blakey and intuitively forges his style. It soaks up the delicate harmonies of Enrico Pieranunzi, the aristocratic phrasing of Bill Evans and the rhythmic fury of the collectives.

Yet, even if he shared the stage, for one evening, with Chet Baker, experienced the thrill of an Italian tour with Steve Grossmann and won a few piano competitions, Giovanni Mirabassi struggles to believe in his lucky star.

And then, in 1992, it is the saving exile in Paris. There, he found the Italian diaspora: Paolo Fresu, Flavio Boltro, Stefano di Battista and especially their prestigious elder, Aldo Romano, delighted to collect these chicks fallen from the nest. There too, he meets by chance one of the last giants of classical piano, Aldo Ciccolini, who takes him under his wing and gives him some precious lessons. Here again, he came across Louis Moutin and Daniele Mencarelli with whom he recorded his first founding album, Architectures (1998). Finally, he eventually rose to fame with Avanti.