15 YEARS OF CORAL RIFF
Looking Back, Booking Forward
This February 2026 Coral Riff turns 15.
It’s a milestone that makes me pause for a moment and look back with gratitude, because between one stage and the next, the most precious things have always been the esteem, trust and affection of the people I’ve met along the way: musicians, promoters, artistic directors, venues and festivals who believed in me, appreciated my work and loved my artists.
I come from a family of lawyers and, after finishing school, it was almost taken for granted that I would follow in my relatives’ footsteps. In reality, though, I’ve never been a “bookworm”, but more of an explorer, and my personality and passions led me elsewhere.
First, military service in the Navy, then a couple of years in Messina trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was looking for my path, and my path brought me to Rome, where I grew as a man and found the beginning of the journey that has brought me here.
In 2009 came the experience with the venue where I met some of the best jazz musicians on the national and international scene. With some of them I built real relationships, and in February 2011 I started this activity.
The name Coral Riff is a little wordplay: halfway between “Choral Riff” and “Coral Reef”. I’ve always been into music and surfing, and when I first started I even thought I might focus on surf-rock bands. In the end I stayed anchored mainly to jazz and world music, but the name kept that original spark.
From 2011 onward I’ve lived I don’t even know how many lives, between relationships and moving house, across Italy, Spain, Germany and then Italy again, but my work has been one of the very few constants in my life ever since, together with my guitar and, not long after, my love for the waves.
Over the years I’ve had the honor of working with extraordinary artists such as Irio De Paula, Stelvio Cipriani, Stanley Jordan, Frank Gambale, Scott Henderson, Oz Noy, Wayne Krantz, Jeff Berlin, Jeff Lorber, Dennis Chambers, Anton Fig, Jimmy Haslip, George Whitty, the Pastorius brothers, Faso, Christian Meyer, Alessio Menconi and so many, many others. I apologize to anyone who doesn’t see their name here, but otherwise the list would truly be far too long.
Every collaboration has left something behind. Music, relationships and memories that will not “be lost in time… like tears… in rain”, but will remain etched in my memory, in my heart, and in the stories of everyone who was part of them.
A quick note about the photos in the slider: they only go back to 2021. I added them simply to give an idea of the journey. To go further back I would have had to spend a lot more time searching, and I can’t do that right now because I need to work on what’s coming next. I also apologize for the quality of many pictures (my old phone’s camera was especially poor) and for the somewhat random selection, but I tried to put together a visual summary.
In the next few days I’ll send a special newsletter with my proposals for the current year. If you’d like to receive it, subscribe by filling out the form below.
Finally, thank you again to all the artists, promoters, colleagues, collaborators and to everyone I’ve met along the way who, in one role or another, helped me write these chapters and keep moving forward. I’m truly grateful.
Fab
