Cologne Jazzweek: Luca Curcio – La BOMBA

Luca Curcio first learned to play the trumpet because he wanted to join the band in his hometown in northern Italy. He later switched to drums before discovering the electric bass and double bass—the instruments he would go on to study—first at the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Turin, and later at the Rytmisk Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen. In 2022, he moved to Berlin, but has been constantly commuting between the German and Danish capitals ever since.

These two cities also form the pan-European core of his quintet: with him on bass and the Ukrainian Igor Osypov, who also lives in Berlin, on electric guitar; his Copenhagen-based compatriot Francesco Bigoni on tenor saxophone, the Dane Asger Uttrup Nissen—who lives in Berlin—on alto saxophone, and the Norwegian Simon Olderskog Albertsen—who lives in Copenhagen—on drums. Together, they play improvisational music that is entirely rooted in the here and now, creating one sonic moment after another with their almost physically palpable sounds, dense clusters of notes, and circling grooves.