Leo Genovese

LEO GENOVESE, 29, a native of Venado Tuerto, Argentina, began classes at Berklee on September 11, 2001 — which says everything and nothing about this young jazz pianist eager to throw himself into the unknown. Genovese has great fingers, but it’s his ears, knowledge, and instincts that make him special. He’ll transform familiar standards, bending and twisting their harmonic shape, and just when you think he’s left the Earth’s orbit, he’ll land on a chord that lets the audience — and his band members — know that, yes, he’s still playing “All the Things You Are.” He’s a regular with his former Berklee classmate Esperanza Spalding; leads his own band, the Chromatic Guachos; and collaborates with bassist John Lockwood and drummer Nat Mugavero in a free-improv band called the Sewer Rats — where he indeed leaves Earth far behind, traveling a deep, collective inner space.

LEO GENOVESE | myspace.com/leogenovese