Biography
On March 25, 1955, bassist Roberto Occhipinti entered the world in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His family maintains a strong musical lineage that features two guitarists, his younger brother Michael and cousin David. Michael has earned recognition as a sideman while helping establish NOJO, the Neufeld-Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra. Beginning in 1972 at the University of Toronto, Roberto trained with Thomas Monohan and received guidance from Joel Quarrington along with the distinguished jazz bassist Dave Young. During the mid-1970s he performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, followed by membership in the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra through the early and middle 1980s and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra from the mid- to late 1980s. He served as principal bassist of the Esprit Orchestra between 1986 and 1994 and maintained an extended association with Arraymusic that ran from 1979 until 2000. Starting in 1997, Occhipinti collaborated with Cuban expatriate jazz pianist Hilario Durán as well as saxophonist Jane Bunnett’s Spirits of Havana, NOJO alongside guests Sam Rivers or Don Byron, the Toronto sextet Soul Stew, Marty Morell, Gorillaz, Englishman Damon Albarn’s Mali Music, the Russian Globalis Symphony Orchestra, the True North Brass, Jovino Santos Neto, the Gryphon Trio, the St. Lawrence Quartet, and Via Salzburg. In addition to his performing career, Occhipinti has built a respected reputation as a producer for Hilario Durán, Dafnis Prieto, Quartetto Gelato, and the Shurum Burum Jazz Circus while also acting as music director and orchestra contractor on various film and commercial projects. The University of Toronto conferred an Artist Diploma upon him in 1999. Two years later he shared the Juno Award for Best Global Album with Bunnett’s Spirits of Havana. In 2005 he earned his own Juno for producing Durán’s New Danzon CD. Further honors include the National Jazz Award for Producer of the Year in both 2005 and 2006 and Acoustic Group of the Year for his ensemble in 2005. A SOCAN award for the cartoon series George Shrinks followed in 2006.
Albums
