Born in Foligno, Italy, in 1985, Giovanni Guidi first showed interest in music at the tender age of three, when he received a toy drumset as a gift. At twelve, he began to study the piano. During his studies at the summer masterclasses in Siena, he began to attract the attention of Enrico Rava (He is a member of his New Quintet) who later asked him to join the group Rava Under 21, and subsequently Rava New Generation. It was with this later incarnation that Guidi appeared on a nationally distributed bonus CD for the magazine “L’Espresso.” In addition to the continuing collaboration with Rava ( PM Jazz Lab and Quintet) he performs in the Gianluca Petrella’s Cosmic Music Orchestra, Fabrizio Sferra Trio and leads groips of his own. Guidi has performed in a number of important festivals, including Umbria Jazz, Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival, Ubi Jazz, Vicenza New Conversation, Umbria Jazz Balkanic Windows, Zurich Nu Jazz, Fandango Jazz Festival, Stavanger Mai Jazz, Vigo Jazz Festival and North Sea Jazz Festiva. At Umbria Jazz 2006, he appeared as an artist-in-residence, performing ten consecutive nights to very enthusiastic crowds. With his quartet, featuring three other young jazz musicians: American Dan Kinzelman on woodwinds, Stefano Senni on bass, and the Portuguese drummer Joao Lobo, Guidi demonstrates his talents as a pianist and composer.  The quartet performs a series Guidi’s original compositions, strongly influenced by popular music, but with very uncommon harmonic structures, and characterized by a profound melodic sense.

In addition to these originals, the quartet performs fresh versions of pieces by musicians as varied as Ornette Coleman, Hampton Hawes, Radiohead and Bjork. The Giovanni Guidi Trio released a CD for the Japanese record company VENUS. The CD, “Tomorrow Never Knows” received five stars in a recent review by the magazine “Swing Journal.” In February 2007 the CD “Indian Summer” was released by CAM JAZZ. Giovanni Guidi has been named "Best New Talent" by a jury of 58 journalists and critics in a poll entitled "TOP JAZZ 2007," held yearly by the Italian magazine "Musica Jazz." In 2008 was released his album called "The House Behind This One". In July 2009 was released his new album “The Unknown Rebel Band”. His 3rd CD for CAM Jazz, marks his debut indirecting a larger ensemble. Theresult is a record of startling intensity, successfullybalancing moments of pronounced lyricism with influences fromfree jazz, a continuing source of inspiration for the young pianist from Foligno. Guidi was named best Italian pianist in 2011 by the magazine Insound, and the year-end poll of Musica Jazz placed him in 2nd as best pianist, only one point behind the winner. It's becoming clear that at just 27 years of age, Guidi is emerging as one of the most important voices of the new generation in Italy and abroad. 2012 has been an important one for Italian pianist Giovanni Guidi. His fourth record as a leader, “WE DON’T LIVE ANYMORE,» was released in February by CAM JAZZ. Guidi is accompanied by some of New York's finest musicians (Michael Blake, Thomas Morgan, Gerald Cleaver) as well as frequent Italian collaborator Gianluca Petrella. The quintet performed two successful concert tours in Europe following the release. In the spring, he appeared as a sideman on Roberto Cecchetto's «SOFT WIND» with Giovanni MAIER and Michele RABBIA, released on MY FAVORITE RECORDS and, in mid-September, the highly anticipated ECM release «TRIBE» by Enrico RAVA, with Gianluca PETRELLA, Gabriele EVANGELISTA and Fabrizio SFERRA: the latest incarnation of Rava's quintet, in which the original voice of Guidi is an important defining characteristic. He has continued to work as a sideman in various formations including trombonist Gianluca Petrella's «Cosmic Band" as well as the new Petrella project «Il Bidone," dedicated to Nino Rota's music. The explosive Guidi/Petrella duo was enthusiastically received at the Euro Jazz festival in Mexico City. With Enrico Rava he appears in duo as well as in the quintet, now entitled Tribe, and in the Enrico Rava PM Jazz Lab (in various projects including the recent «We Want Michael" project dedicated to Michael Jackson). His groups as a leader include his original quartet with Dan Kinzelman, Stefano Senni and Joao Lobo, the Unknown Rebel Band (with a new repertoire of African music), and the new quintet with Shane Endsley (trumpet player of Kneebody), long-time companion Dan Kinzelman and Thomas Morgan and Gerald Cleaver. Guidi's first record as a leader for ECM "City of Broken Dreams" with Thomas Morgan and Joao Lobo was released on March 2013.