Bio

Cosimo Erario was born on 27 April 1968 in Carbonara di Bari (Bari), Italy. He began playing guitar at the age of 7 in Bari. He learned the first rudiments of music theory and guitar playing from his father, a classical musician (bassoon). At this time he was influenced by Simon&Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Edoardo Bennato. In his mid-teens he discovered Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, B.B.King, Earth Wind &Fire, and James Brown, and his playing began developing n the direction of blues and funk. He played with various pop-rock bands in his home town, and performed in concerts throughout Italy. With the band "Metropolitan" he wins the 1st place as newcomers band by a music competition festival. One day, listening to a tape, he discovered the jazz guitar of George Benson. It was probably one of the most important musical moments in his life. From that moment on he began studying guitar seriously. He attended the Corso di Perfezionamento Musicale in Siena, where his instructor was Riccardo Bianchi. He also took private guitar lessons with maestro N. Lastilla and Nico Stufano, Italy's top jazz guitar player. He participated in the "Ravenna Jazz" festival and worked with American jazz stars like Mike Stern, Joe Diorio and Pat Metheny. He visited workshops by Mike Landau, Frank Gambale, Bruce Kulick, Andy Timmons, Peppino D'agostino, Andy Timmons, Preston Reed, Beppe Gambetta and Dan Crary. He formed the fusion bands "Oldestellery" and "Jazzmine" and played in innumerable jazz clubs. He received great inspiration from musicians like Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Allan Holdsworth, Mike Stern, Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Toninho Orta, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. At the age of 23 he decided to form his own band. With the Cosimo Erario Trio and Quartet, he performed many concerts in southern Italy, playing in jazz clubs and at various festivals. He also played as a special guest with various jazz combos. He worked as a session musician in recording studios in Bari, Modena, Rome, Milan, Cologne and Nürnberg. He toured with up-and-coming singers Lorenzo Zecchino and Fedele Boccassini from the "Festival di Sanremo" , and recorded a CD with the later on which Billy Cobham also appeared as a special guest on one track. In 1994 he toured Germany for eighteen months with the Italian formation "La Piazza," performing some 300 concerts. In 1995 he decided to leave his home in Bari and move to Cologne. He immediately began performing with local musicians in jazz clubs in the region. He performed live on a local talk show with the jazz trio Pocoloco and also landed TV gigs on TOP OF THE POPS, SCHLAG DEN RAAB (PRO7), MENSCHEN BILDER EMOTIONEN (RTL), WETTEN DASS (ZDF) with Matthias Rheim,E-Nomine, TAKE THAT, JOE COCKER. He worked with the producer Dieter Krauthausen (M.M.Westernhagen) to realize a pop CD with Italian songs written by himself, and also collaborated with Krauthausen as a vocal coach for the project" The Champ" (SONY) by the band This Side Up. This was a project for FORMULA1 pilot Michael Schumacher and will be part of the Michael Schumacher official collection. Erario also played guitar on various projects produced by Marcus Greiner ( "DUKE" , "THE REEDEMERS", "BENNY" ) for MCM Records. In 2000 he founded EGP musicproductions, a label and publishing company, and completed the music for the films "LUGATO" and "EINE SACHE DER NATUR" (winner of many international awards) for W-FILM of Cologne. In the same year he composed music for the YOUNG BRITISH DESIGN, an ambient music project created by Stil Haus for the International Furniture Fair in Cologne. He released two CDs on the EGP label, "WORLD" and "THE DOG IS MY KING". Some tracks were used on American TV programs like "Knock first", "When Melrose Place Ruled The World" and "Soapography". Several tracks from his second CD have been played by many radio stations around the world, and he enjoys praise for his music by a growing number of international DJs. The track "Step Over" was included on an Italian chill-out compilation, "CHILLOUT ZONE 021." He recently collaborated on the project "Collages Des Lebens," a free jazz combo with international musicians and dancers. In 2005 he went on tour as Special Guest with the "MENSCHEN SINFONIE ORCHESTER." The combo performed at the Catholic World Youth Day in Bonn before an audience of 105,000 young people from all over the world. At present, Cosimo Erario is a sought-after guitar teacher at two music schools in Hennef and Hückeswagen, Germany, with more than 70 students weekly. He is promoting his latest CD "MILLE OCEANI" worldwide. An "unplugged" work that combines pop and jazz elements with Italian lyrics. As a producer, his latest project is the new jazz CD by Alessandro Palmitessa for EGP, coming out in april 2007.