Emilio Solla

Pianist/Composer/Arranger/Bandleader

Latin Grammy winner and six-time Grammy nominee, Argentine-born and New York-based pianist and composer Emilio Solla got his degree in Classical Piano at the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires and his MA in Jazz Composition at the Aaron Copland School of Music in New York. His first project, Apertura, was praised by Astor Piazzolla as one of the most interesting new sounds in the Buenos Aires scene in 1986. Today, with thirteen CDs as bandleader and more than fifty as arranger/producer, he is regarded by peers and critics as one of the most outstanding and unique composers in the Tango-Jazz field, a musical language that blends Argentine tango and folk with jazz and other contemporary music styles. He has performed all around Europe, Japan, the US and Latin America to rave reviews in many of the most important jazz houses and festivals, such as Bim Huis, Lincoln Center, Marciac, Blue Note, Fasching and more.

Solla moved to Barcelona in 1996 and later to New York in 2006, and since then he has worked with Paquito D’Rivera, Arturo O’Farrill, Yo-Yo Ma, Edmar Castañeda and many others jazz and classical music greats in his different capacities of composer, arranger and pianist. He has also performed regularly in the city with his different projects at the Jazz Standard, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Birdland. Former members of his bands include Donny McCaslin, Chris Cheek, Omer Avital, Jorge Rossy, Jeff Ballard and more. 

He continues to tour Europe and the US while working as a free-lance arranger and pianist in different projects. His NY based quintet Bien Sur! released its first CD in 2010 with special guest Billy Hart. This album was included in the Best of 2010 list by Downbeat Magazine. Since November 2010, he is leading a nine-piece orchestra, La Inestable de Brooklyn, featuring some of the strongest jazz players in NYC. Their first CD, Second Half (2015) was Nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Latin Jazz Album. 2017 took him back to Buenos Aires for the Premiere of the symphonic version of his Suite Piazzollana. In 2018, he started composing for a new project, the Tango Jazz Orchestra, a 17-piece big band, taking his blend of Latin American sounds and jazz to a whole new level of accomplishment. This orchestra released its first album, “Puertos” on August 28, 2019. This album won the Latin Grammy 2020 for Best Jazz Album and one of Solla’s compositions, La Novena, was awarded a Grammy Nomination in 2019 as Best Instrumental Arrangement, sharing the nomination with John Williams, Vince Mendoza and Jacob Collier.

May 2023 found Solla releasing two new albums: his new quartet with flamenco singer/saxophonist Antonio Lizana, and a symphonic homage to Chick Corea feat. Paquito D’Rivera, in which Solla wrote all the arrangements and orchestrations (Warner Classics) and which was awarded two Latin Grammy nominations and one Grammy nomination. He also wrote arrangements for the Boston Symphony, the Slovenia Philharmonic and the WDR Big Band.