Stefano India is an Italian Bass Player, Composer and Educator from Palermo – Sicily.
He performed in venues such as Jazzahead! Bremen (DE), Festivalle (IT), Boullard Musique (CH), A to Jazz in Bulgaria, the University of Applied Science of Berlin, Blue Note MI, Casa del Jazz Rome, and Festival di Spoleto (IT) among others.

Stefano performed in productions with Peter Erskine, Monica Mancini, Greg Field, Raphael Gualazzi, Fabrizio Bosso, Salvatore Bonafede and Nico Gori in ensembles ranging from combo to jazz and symphony orchestra and collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as John Serry, Mimmo Cafiero and Matteo Mancuso.
With Matteo Mancuso, he recorded “The Journey”, released by Mascot Label Group, known for artists such as Steve Vai, Joe Bonamassa, and Toto. In support of this project, he participated in tours in Italy and Europe and in music videos of the singles Silkroad, Drop D, and Paul Position.

Stefano is a Ph.D. candidate with a research grant in artistic research at Benevento Conservatory with the project “Timbral and musical developments of the Electric Bass: analysis of the past and future perspectives through writing new repertoire”. His focus is on renewing and expanding the electric bass instrumental possibilities and repertoire in a contemporary jazz setting. “Drop the Bass is, in fact, also an expression of my research, where I combine the sounds of acoustic and electronic jazz with fusion-style compositions.—says Stefano—Drop the Bass is also an ongoing music video series.”

For this quintet, Stefano have chosen musicians with whom he collaborated for a decade: Fabiano Petrullo and Carla Restivo on saxophones, Valerio Dainotti on piano and keyboards, and Riccardo Salvatore on drums.

He won the scholarship in Production and Arrangement at CET School of Mogol, the 2018 Premio Nazionale delle Arti Jazz (a competition among all Italian Conservatoires), the 2020 Chicco Bettinardi Award with the band #RedingProject, and the best soloist award at the Enzo Randisi. Stefano graduated with honors in electric bass and earned a degree in classical double bass from the Palermo Conservatory and studied ensemble music at the Open Jazz Club with Mimmo Cafiero. He was selected for the European Jazz’s Cool Artist Residency, funded by MiBac and Erasmus+, and performed his music with Bebo Ferra in Rome and Berlin.

Chandra Giudice