DANIEL “TOPO” GIOIA

Daniel “Topo” Gioia was born in Rosario/Argentina. At the age of fifteen he began studying percussion. In 1973 he moved to Spain, where for two years he performed in Madrid and Barcelona with various Argentinean and South American groups. Since 1977 he has lived in Berlin, Germany, where he founded the group Ipanema. For eleven years he worked and performed all over Europe with the bass player Hans Hartmann. Concurrently he played with Lydie Auvray.
This was followed by six years of collaboration with the Afro-Brazilian dancer Ismael Ivo, with whom he toured throughout Europe and Japan. In 1988 he was awarded “Best Conga Player” at the Latin Percussion Competition in Germany (Head of jury: Alex Acuña). From 1992 he played with the band of Jocelyn B. Smith and worked with the accordionist Cathrin Pfeifer intensively. In 1997 he recorded a live CD with saxophone legend Steve Lacy and toured the USA and Europe with him. He has been teaching percussion a the Hanns-Eisler-Hochschule in Berlin since 1999.

Daniel “Topo” Gioia has contributed to over 300 LPs and CDs, with the likes of Hendrik Meurkens, Ray Anderson, Ernie Watts, Mezzoforte, Ronaldo Folegatti, Klaus Hoffmann as well as Experimenti Berlin. He has performed live with John Newton, Giora Feidman, Lalo Schifrin, Oreste Vilato and Raul Recow of Santana, Mikis Theodorakis, Maria Farantouri as well as Ray Anderson and the American guitarist Tino Gonzales. These performances took him to Japan and into almost all European countries, with the jazz festivals of Pori (Finland), Prague (Czech Republic), Berlin (Germany), Rimini (Italy) and Donaueschingen (Germany) marking special high points. He worked with Yvonne Catterfeld in many TV and live shows. The CD Flamenco Romantico is his third with Rafa El Tachuela, with whom he has collaborated for over twenty years.