Biography

John De Leo (pseudonym of Massimo De Leonardis) is an Italian singer and composer born in Lugo di Romagna on 27 May 1970. A transversal artist, with a ductile and experimental vocality, his voice-instrument is grafted into an articulated compositional conception that draws on folk, jazz, rock, contemporary, up to reading and performance art. The critic and musicologist Stefano Zenni called him «The most important singer in Italy today».

Collaborator and promoter of artistic projects not strictly of a musical nature, from the 90s to the present he has collaborated with: Rita Marcotulli, Teresa De Sio and Metissage, Ambrogio Sparagna, Paolo Damiani, Stefano Benni, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Carlo Lucarelli, Stefano Bollani, Paolo Fresu, Danilo Rea, Furio Di Castri, Roberto Gatto, Franco Battiato, Enrico Rava, Carmen Consoli, Médéric Collignon, Ivano Fossati, Antonello Salis, Alterego and Louis Andriessen, Nguyen Le, Gianluca Petrella, GianLuigi Trovesi, Alessandro Bergonzoni, Maurizio Gianmarco, Fabrizio Bosso, Trilok Gurtu, Stewart Copeland, Uri Caine, Hamid Drake, Caparezza, Adrian Mears. Co-founder of Quintorigo, he was part of the ensemble from 1992 to 2004.

He currently performs with his JDL Grande Abarasse Orchestra, in a duo with pianist Rita Marcotulli and with Jazzabilly Lovers Quartet. President of the Lugocontemporanea Cultural Association, since 2005 he has organized the eponymous Festival of Music and other forms of expression in Lugo di Romagna. In 2016, UNESCO awarded him the title of Ambassador of Culture.