Dominique DiPiazza

Dominique DiPiazza, born in Lyon, France in 1959, is an electric bass player.

Though of Sicilian heritage, DiPiazza was raised among gipsys in France. DiPiazza discovered the bass in 1979 - largely due to the influence of Jaco Pastorius, who was playing with Weather Report at the time. Already a self-taught guitarist, DiPiazza developed a distinctive, but unorthodox 'closed palm' technique of picking with the right hand thumb, index, and middle fingers, giving him a speed not often heard in electric bass players.

Early career

Rapidly he began playing with big names in the new generation of French jazz musicians, such as Eric Barret, Jean-Pierre Como, Michel Pérez, Louis Winsberg, Aldo Romano, Nicolas Folmer, Laurent Cugny's Big Band, Didier Lockwood, the European tour with Gil Evans, André Céccarelli, Joe Di Orio, Dennis Chambers, Bireli Lagrene, Michel Petrucciani, Katia et Marielle Labèque, Bobby Thomas, Jr., Donald Harrison, Danny Gottlieb, Gary Husband, Antonio Farao, Jeff Gardner, Guiseppe Continenza, Alex Acuna, Adam Nitti, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Norman Stockton, Gordon Beck , Victor Wooten, Lincoln Goines, Michael Manring, Yves Carbone.

With the John McLaughlin Trio

A member of the John McLaughlin Trio" from 1991 to 1992 along with Trilok Gurtu a world tour of 300 concerts and an album "Que Alegria". He influenced numerous bass players in Europe and the USA such as Matthew Garrison, Adam Nitti, Lucas Pickford.

Career Hiatus and Religious Studies

Around 1992/1993, DiPiazza stopped playing bass and became heavily christian, eventually qualifying as an associate pastor. This hiatus lasted about seven years - the first four of which he did not play or touch the bass at all.

Career Since 2000

In 2000, DiPiazza released the CD Front Page with a group of the same name, consisting of Bireli Lagrene on Guitar and Dennis Chambers on Drums. The CD was awarded the Victory Music Award in 2001 for the year's best jazz CD.

In 2005 and 2006 DiPiazza toured in Réunion, Mauritius, Madagascar and 10 other countries in Africa, accompanied by Meddy Gerville - a pianist from Reunion, Jean-Marie Ecay on guitar, and drummer Horacio "el negro" Hernandez.

This tour led to a new CD called Jazz Amwin, which has been released independently.Meddy Gerville invites the World to discover the rhythms of Maloya (traditional music) mixed with Jazz.

References

[http://www.globalbass.com/archives/oct2001/dominique_dipiazza.htm GlobalBass.com archives - accessed on August 19th, 2007]