Biography
Max De Aloe is considered one of the most active jazz harmonicists on the European scene. His works number fifteen albums as a leader and more than forty as a sideman, as well as solo shows, soundtrack composition for theater performances and documentary films, and creative collaborations with poets, writers and directors. He has worked with Adam Nussbaum, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Paul Wertico, John Helliwell (Supertramp), Mike Melillo, Bill Carrothers, Eliot Zigmund, Don Friedman, Hendrik Meurkens, Paolo Fresu, Garrison Fewell, Enrico Rava, Franco Cerri, Enrico Pieranunzi, Dado Moroni and countless others. He has participated in various music seasons and festivals all over the world (Madagascar, Mozambique, SouthAfrica, Zimbabwe, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Denmark, Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Finland, Spain, etc).
In the last five years he won the Jazz It Award, hold by Jazzit magazine, as the best Italian musician in the category of various instruments (cello, harp, banjo, harmonica, mandolin, etc.). He also won the Orpheus Award 2015 in the jazz section with his CD Borderline. His professional activities are split between playing and teaching. He runs his own music school, which he founded in 1995, (Centro Espressione Musicale) in Gallarate (Milan), where he teaches jazz improvisation, modern piano, accordion and above all chromatic harmonica. He was a teacher at the Accademia d’Arti e Mestieri dello spettacolo of Milan’s prestigious La Scala theater. He has published Method for Chromatic Harmonica in 2012 by Sher Music in USA and the same method in Italy for Volontè & Co. in 2013. This method has been endorsed by Toots Thielemans and by the best-known contemporary jazz harmonicists.
