Giovanni Tommaso

Giovanni Tommaso is an Italian bassist and double bassist, born in Lucca in 1941. He worked in Rome from the late 1960s as a session player, arranger and composer, and he is best known as the founder and bassist of Perigeo, the jazz-rock group he led in the 1970s. Tommaso formed the Quartetto di Lucca in 1957 with his brother Vito, and in 1958 the group won a contest for young jazz musicians in Rome. In 1959-1960 he played in cruise-ship orchestras and met Paul Chambers, Ray Brown and Charles Mingus in New York. He also played with Chet Baker during the trumpeter's time in Lucca.