Francesco Bigoni

Appears on:

• CRISCO 3
  You Can Never Please Anybody
• VERSO
  Echoes of Remembered Things

Born in Ferrara in 1982, Francesco Bigoni is largely self-taught, his path shaped early on by his encounter with Steve Lacy and by attending three editions of the Siena Jazz Seminars.
In 2001, together with Luca Dell’Anna and Massimiliano Sorrentini, he founded his first project, Rootless, which led to the release of his debut album, Brian Had A Little Plate (El Gallo Rojo, 2005).

In 2004 and 2005 he played in Enrico Rava’s Under 21 quintet.

From 2004 to 2008 he attended the Permanent Music Research Laboratory directed by Stefano Battaglia. Since 2005, as a member of the label/collective El Gallo Rojo, he has experimented with collective production strategies. Within El Gallo Rojo, numerous projects were born that featured him both as sideman (Beppe Scardino Orange Room, Alfonso Santimone Laser Pigs, Zeno De Rossi Shtik) and as co-leader.
In 2007, along with Zeno De Rossi and Enrico Terragnoli, he formed the quartet “Houdini’s Cage,” which, after an Italian tour, recorded Memories of a Barber (El Gallo Rojo). That project marked the beginning of his collaboration with bassist Greg Cohen.
Also in 2007 he joined Gianluca Petrella’s Cosmic Band, with which he performed extensively on major Italian and European stages.
Since 2009 he has been a member of guitarist Francesco Diodati’s quartet, Neko.

Francesco has been active on the Italian jazz scene since his early twenties, before relocating to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009. In 2012 he graduated from the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen.

He was a founding member of the Italian artist collective/record label El Gallo Rojo, and since 2014 has been a member of ILK, appearing on more than forty albums and touring widely across many countries.

A passionate and versatile wind player and composer, Francesco pursues sound from every angle: he holds a degree in electronic engineering and works in the fields of electroacoustics and interaction design.

He is co-leader of the Italo-Danish quintet On Dog, which since 2012 has toured extensively in Italy, Germany, Denmark, and Luxembourg (Copenhagen Jazzhouse, Casa del Jazz – Rome, Loft – Cologne, Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Abbaye de Neumünster – Luxembourg, Metastasio Jazz – Prato, Correggio Jazz, …) and released three albums on ILK.

Beyond On Dog, Francesco co-leads Maniscalco/Bigoni/Solborg (also released on ILK), The Weaving 4 (with Francesco Diodati, Benoît Delbecq, and Steve Argüelles), and Crisco 3 (with Piero Bittolo Bon and Beppe Scardino). He also appears as a sideman in numerous projects led by Zeno De Rossi, Francesco Diodati, Maria Faust, Federica Michisanti, Danilo Gallo, and others.