Biography
Nello Toscano is a double bassist and composer among the historic voices of Sicilian jazz. Born in Brescia in 1952 and moved to Catania as a child, he studied double bass at the V. Bellini Music Conservatory in Catania after earning a degree in philosophy, then perfected his playing with Dave Holland and later studied with George Russell at JACP in Paris.
In 1995 he founded Anaglyphos, the cultural association from which the jazz record label of the same name later emerged. In 1997 "Anaglifo" was released, a song for the Balletto di Sicilia by Roberto Zappalà, recorded with Paolo Fresu and Rosalba Bentivoglio. Since 1998 he has directed, as founder and producer, the Mediterranean Jazz Orchestra, a seventeen-piece ensemble featuring leading names of Italian jazz.
Across a career marked by recordings under his own name and countless national and international collaborations, Toscano has performed alongside artists such as Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu, Massimo Urbani, Phil Woods, Fabrizio Bosso, Lee Konitz, Kenny Barron, Bob Mintzer and Charles Tolliver. The album "Winter Sky", recorded with Enrico Rava, extended his recognition well beyond the Sicilian scene.
His discography continues with "Pasolini nell'era di internet" (2000) and "Patchwork Project 3" (2012). In 2022 he releases "Inside", an album that has reached millions of streams on digital platforms thanks also to the track "Clouds", and in the same year he collaborates on "Remember to remember" by Claudio Cusmano with Enzo Zirilli. "Radici" (2023) and "Stories" (2024) follow. From one of his intuitions comes the "Norma in Jazz" project, which translates Bellini's celebrated opera into jazz language with Paolo Fresu as the lead voice.
He is also among the founders of the Monk Jazz Club in Catania, the leading live-jazz venue in eastern Sicily. Alongside his artistic work, he has carried out an intensive teaching and educational activity, contributing to the growth of entire generations of Sicilian musicians.
