Roberto Magris is an international jazz sensation, based in Italy & playing all over the world in the most prolific festivals & clubs.
He has recorded 26 albums with his own groups and has played concerts in 41 different countries in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia, also performing at several top jazz festivals and jazz clubs in the world, including "Catalina Jazz Club" in Hollywood, "The Blue Room" in Kansas City, "The Jazz Bakery" in Los Angeles, "Porgy & Bess" in Vienna, "Unterfahrt" in Munich, "Agharta", "Reduta" and "Jazz Dock" in Prague, "Muniak Jazz Club" in Krakow, "Jazz Club Gajo" in Ljubljana, "B.P. Jazz Club" in Zagreb, "Half Note" in Athens, "Nardis" in Istanbul, "Atlantis" in Basel, "Bennett's Lane" in Melbourne, "Thelonious" and "Notorious" in Buenos Aires, "Montreal Jazz Festival", "San Sebastian Jazz Festival", "Ocho Rios Jamaica", "Toronto Downtown", "Summer Jazz Krakow", "Atlantic Jazz Festival Halifax", "Galway Jazz Festival", "Jazz at Hermitage Moskow", "Jazzkaar Tallinn", "Ecuador Jazz", "Jazz en Lima", "Gulf Jazz Festival" and many others.
In the ‘80s, Magris was the leader of a jazz trio named "Gruppo Jazz Marca" and recorded 3 LP's that were reissued 25 years later on CD format, as collector's items, by the English label Arision. In the ‘90s, he increased wider recognition in the European and International jazz scene performing and recording CD's with the "Roberto Magris Quartet", the progressive jazz bands "DMA Urban Jazz Funk" and "Alfabeats Nu Jazz", and as a soloist as well.
In the period 1998-2002, he was the musical director of the "Europlane Orchestra", a central-European jazz venture sponsored by INCE-CEI (Central European Initiative), and in 2003 he founded the "Roberto Magris Europlane Quintet". In those years, he also recorded 3 CD's released by the historical Italian jazz label Soulnote: "Check In" (with Tony Lakatos and Michael Erian), "Il Bello Del Jazz" (with Herb Geller, the West Coast jazz icon), and "Current Views" (with Philip Catherine, Bill Molenhof a.o.). In 2008, he was celebrated as a pianist, composer and arranger in the CD "Big Band Ritmo-Sinfonica Città di Verona plays the music of Roberto Magris / Restless Spirits", released by the Italian label Velut Luna.
In 2009, Magris renewed his partnership with Herb Geller, performing together around Europe untill the latterdays of Geller's career. Along the years, he has also mantained a friendly collaboration with Tony Lakatos, playing concerts together in Europe and in the USA, and with Czech bassist Frantisek Uhlir. Since 2006, Magris has mainly focused his musical interests in the USA, where he has become the musical director and leading recording artist for JMood Records, the Kansas City jazz label owned by Paul Collins, and has performed and recorded with jazz legends Art Davis (bassist for John Coltrane), Albert "Tootie" Heath, Idris Muhammad, Sam Reed as well as with Brandon Lee, Logan Richardson, Paul Carr, Jimmy "Junebug" Jackson, Hermon Mehari, Matt Otto, Alonzo "Scooter" Powell, Jim Mair, Elisa Pruett, Kendall Moore, Peter Schlamb, Michael O'Neill, Monique Danielle, Julia Haile, Pablo Sanhueza a.o.. In the last years, he mostly likes to perform in the USA with his Kansas City trio, including bassist Dominique Sanders and drummer Brian Steever.
In 2014, Magris' discography on JMood Records includes 11 CD's: "Kansas City Outbound", "Mating Call", "Morgan Rewind vol. 1 & 2", "One Night In With Hope And More vol. 1 & 2", "Cannonball Funk'n Friends", "Aliens In A Bebop Planet", "Ready For Reed", "An Evening With Herb Geller & The Roberto Magris Trio" and "Enigmatix".
In the early days of his career, Magris performed as a sideman with jazz legends Kai Winding, Eddie Lockjaw Davis and Sal Nistico. Along the years, he has also collaborated with Franco Ambrosetti, Florian Brambock, Ines Reiger, Rudi Engel, Nikola Matosic, the members of his Italian quartet Ettore Martin, Danilo Gallo and Enzo Carpentieri, Maria Dal Rovere and Paolo Prizzon with the project "Italian Songs In Jazz", the "Traditional Jazz Studio" from Prague, Ricardo Cavalli in Argentina and the African percussionists in Gabon.
About Magris' style, jazz critic Ira Gitler wrote: "as a pianist he reflects some of his most admired models - Wynton Kelly, Tommy Flanagan, Bill Evans, Kenny Drew, Jaki Byard, Randy Weston, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, Paul Bley, Don Pullen and Steve Kuhn (a varied group indeed) - in his own way. There is a quick, supple right hand and the rich harmonies of the two-handed transitions in his playing that don't necessarily summon up instant comparisons to any of the above or others."