Javier Edgardo Girotto was born in Cordoba on April 17, 1965. He approaches music thanks to his maternal grandfather ALCaroli, band director, playing first the snare drum, then the piccolo clarinet in E flat, in the Infanto Juvenil de Cordoba and in the Villa band del Rosario, then move on to the one in B flat. The transition, for a clarinetist, to the saxophone is natural. Choosing the alto sax, he begins to frequent Buenos Aires, looking for someone to introduce him to jazz, unfortunately without luck. Back in Cordoba he forms his first jazz-inspired groups, also dedicating himself to the commercial music of the so-called "Cuartetos". At sixteen he began his classical studies, enrolling at the Conservatorio Provincial De Cordoba and since there is no saxophone chair, he enrolled in clarinet and flute courses, reaching the average completion in both instruments. In parallel with his studies at the conservatory, he forms and collaborates with various groups, including the Vertiente, a mix of Argentine fusion and folklore, the Jazz 440, "Jam", the Enzo Piccioni Quartet and the Juan Ciallella Quartet.
At the age of 19 he won a scholarship from Berklee College of Music and the doors of the world of jazz were finally opened. He stays in the prestigious Bostonian school for four years, graduating in Professional Music "Cum Magna Laude". The four years in the United States are fruitful, a period in which he deepened his studies of composition and arrangement and sax and improvisation with masters of the caliber of Joseph Viola, George Garzone, Hall Crook and Jerry Bergonzi, then learning "the trade", playing with Danilo Perez, George Garzone, Hall Crook, Bob Moses, Herb Pomeroy and many other musicians from whom he collected a spark of their experience.
Javier Girotto's Italian adventure began at the age of 25, to take care of some business of his family, of Apulian origins, (through the Italian citizenship), deciding in a short time to start his professional career in this country. Even in Italy he alternates his collaboration with commercial and Latin music groups with the formation of various jazz groups, with which he begins his tireless activity as composer and arranger. His first Roman formation is "Tercer Mundo", together with Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, on the tracks of Latin jazz, a sextet consisting of piano, bass, percussion, drums, trumpet and sax, followed closely by "Six Sax" , a quartet of saxophones, with bass and drums, composed of Rosario Giuliani and Tony Germani on the top, Gianni Savelli on the tenor, Javier on the baritone, Marco Siniscalco on the bass and Pietro Iodice on the drums, with whom he recorded his first CD "Homenaje ”In 1995 with special guests Bob Mintzer and Randy Brecker. In this same period was born the group for which Girotto's soprano and baritone saxophone are best known, Aires Tango, with Alessandro Gwis on piano, Marco Siniscalco on bass and Michele Rabbia on drums and percussion, in a combination of the reasons for tango with those of jazz which, starting from the pleasure linked to listening to the stylistic features of Argentine music, reassures the listener in facing the "rapids" of the "diversity" of his solos. With Aires Tango he recorded 10 discs and in 2009 they celebrate 15 years of life with their disc "10/15" (precisely to indicate 10th disc and 15 years of life of the group) gems of a journey in which Girotto has always been accompanied from the unconditional applause of the public, who encouraged him to “open” the project to the voice of Peppe Servillo and to the symphony orchestra. In 1999 another group was born, "Cordoba Reunion", made up of four Cordobese musicians, Javier Girotto on sax and flutes, Gerardo Di Giusto on piano, Minino Garay on percussion and Carlos El Tero Buschini on bass, engaged in a project with which returns to the roots of his music, with an eye to those times that preceded the tango, dragging the listener on an empathic and emotional journey in search of the rhythms of Argentine folklore such as milonga, chacarera, zamba and candombe, a group that he recorded a first record with singer Mercedes Sosa. And a second in 2012 "Sin Lugar a Dudas" for the Swiss radio of Lugano Rete Due.
In 2000 Javier Girotto formed a double duo: the first with Daniele Di Bonaventura's bandoneon, with which he recorded three discs: "Javier Girotto Plays Rava", "Recordando Piazzolla" and "Recordando Gardel" with an orchestra of 13 strings;
The second Duo with Luciano Biondini (accordion) with whom he records 3 C.D. with all original compositions, but returning once again to freer improvisation. the first album was in 2002 for the Philology label "El Cacerolazo", the second in 2005 for the ENJA RECORDS "Terra Madre" label. The third disc and DVD “Iguazù” with live DVD in Ukraina. This duo also sees them as protagonists in festivals and clubs, not only in Italy but mainly in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Holland, Eastern Europe, Argentina, Peru, etc.
In the same year he began his collaboration with the prestigious ONJ, the Orchester National du Jazz in Paris (France).
Among the formations of Javier Girotto is the elegant duo formed with the Argentine pianist Natalio Mangalavite, with whom he recorded Colibrì, a CD that represents the synthesis of the entire South American feeling, to which the voice of Peppe Servillo has recently been added , thus creating the GSM Trio Servillo had already collaborated with Girotto in some Aires Tango projects as a guest and over time the collaboration solidified into a desire to create a project together where the singer was the protagonist from start to finish and which sees this project materialize in their first album. entitled "The Friend of Cordoba" for "Il Manifesto CD" Peppe Servillo is the author of the lyrics and Girotto of music. In 2008 the Trio G.S.M. records the second so-called from the title "Futbol" with guest Toni Servillo and Fausto Mesolella.
In 2002 he joined the Enrico Rava quartet "Piano less" with which he recorded a so-called "Full of Life" together with Ares Tavolazzi and Fabrizio Sferra.
Subsequently he forms and records the first album "Nauhel" and: from "Il Manifesto" Javier Girotto & Vertere String Quartet, favoring a repertoire arranged by Luigi Giannatempo with original music by Girotto supported by the string quartet.
2006 He forms together with the Paolo Silvestri Ensemble and Luciano Biondini what would be the continuation of the album "Anniversario" made with Aires Tango and the Sofia symphony orchestra, recording the first album for Giotto Music
In the meantime, with the PMJO (Parco della Musica Jazz Orchestra - Auditorium di Roma), he records the album "Argentina: Escenas en Big Band" with original compositions by Girotto, arranged by Luigi Giannatempo; in December '08 he was invited by the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam for a tour throughout Holland presenting this project of big band and in August 2010 he will be guest of the WDR big band (of the radio of Cologne - Germany) for a “Jazz tango” project with Gary Burton and Marcelo Nisinman.
In November 2008 he presents together with Paolo Silvestri the "Latin Concerto" for symphonic orchestra and soprano saxophone composed by Silvestri for Girotto and in addition compositions by Girotto himself, with the symphonic orchestra of San Marino, the Marchigiana Philharmonic orchestra, Taranto, regional orchestra of Rome and Lazio, a project that will be repeated with all the best European symphony orchestras.
Also in 2008 he formed the "Latin Mood" together with Fabrizio Bosso, documenting this project in the "Tribute" disc and recording the "Sol" disc for Blue Note in the same year; and in 2012 the album "Vamos"
Another project is to have elaborated an original repertoire for saxophone quartet together with the Atem Saxophon Quartet soloist, composer and arranger Girotto himself, documenting this work in the disc "SUIX" produced by the label Parco della Musica in Rome, and in 2013 the second disc of this project for his own label “Araucanos”.
2009 records a record as a soloist for L’Espresso "Live Italian Jazz" recorded at the Casa del Jazz in Rome "together with Aires Tango and Luciano Biondini.
In 2011 he began his own recording adventure by inaugurating "JG records" with his first album (recorded entirely in Argentina and with Cordoba musicians and old friends) "Alrededores de la Ausencia"
From 2009 to 2011 he was a teacher in the jazz chair of the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, he gave countless seminars in the Conservatories of Pesaro, Lecce, Salerno, Como, Turin, Lima (Peru), Cordoba (Argentina), etc ... and in the various music schools throughout Italy and the world.
In 2012 he forms a duo together with the renowned classical pianist Michele Campanella "Musique sans Frontiére" project where the repertoire of the great classical authors such as Debussy-RavelGuastavino, etc. is proposed ... contaminating this wonderful piano music with improvisation and the extra insertion of the saxophone. Disc of the project in March 2014 for the CAM JAZZ label.
Also in November and December 2012 he toured the South American jazz festivals (Uruguay - Argentina - Brasil) together with the guitarist and pianist Ralph Towner
September 2015 records the 12th album "Duende" of his historical group Aires Tango with Guest as an integral part also in the compositions Ralph Towner
In November 2016, problems began in the left hand, and for the whole of 2017 and mid-2018 a hard battle began against a pathology called FOCAL DISTONIA OF THE MUSICIAN, a disorder that did not allow to play and the hand suffered a curling that did not allow movement corrected, fortunately solved (after a thousand attempts, research and personal work on this rare pathology) in May 2018 thus giving a restart to his musical activity with a tour in Argentina and Uruguay and a project entirely arranged by Javier on Lucio Battisti and the second disc with Michele Campanella VERS LA GRANDE PORTE DE KIEV - LIVE AT JERMANN WINERY with music revisited on Mussorgsky - Rachmaninov - Stravinsky, etc ... in 2017 he publishes a book and disc "ESCENAS EN SOLO" MUSIC FOR SAXOPHONE SOLO "and Sax disc only recorded before getting sick
The collaborations of Javier Girotto are endless, from Enrico Rava with whom we find him an interesting baritoneist in the Pianoless quartet, a tribute to Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan, with whom he recorded Full of Life, to Roberto Gatto, backbone of the quintet, with whom he participated in three compact "7 #," Sing sing Sing "and" Deep ", with the trombonist Gianluca Petrella, with whom he recorded" X-Ray ", by Rita Marcotulli, whose formations he is the Argentine-ethnic soul in which he alternates with the Andean flute and the soprano, with whom he recorded "The woman next door" "Koinè" and a record for the magazine L'Espresso in 2009, "Nanà", "Variazioni sul Theme", etc ...
