Gianfranco Continenza

In 2019 was released his third album Vertical Horizons with the collaboration of the bassist Michael Manring and the drummer Oreste Sbarra.

In 2019 he published a guitar method on the creative use of modal scales in improvisation, with foreword by Mark Egan.

In 2016 he performed in concert in Tirana, Albania, and was a guest of the television programs Top Show and Wake Up broadcast by Top Channel.

Dusting The Time, his second album, to which collaborated Dino D'Autorio, Lorenzo Feliciati, Mark Egan, Michael Manring, Tetsuo Sakurai, Adriano Brunelli, Federico Righi, Walter Martino, Don Mock, Sergey Boykov, Alessandro Centofanti, Ernesttico, John Beasley, Bob Mintzer, Enrico Corli, Nicolo Pasello, Emanuele Marchi and Paolo Marchi, was highly appreciated by critics and in 2014 was also reviewed in USA as one of the best jazz-fusion records of the year.

His original song "Back to Beck"was included in the collection The Loner 2 - A Tribute To Jeff Beck, a double album of 24 tracks dedicated to the iconic British guitarist, released in the 2014 by ESC Records.

His original song "Mahavishnology" was included in the 2010 collection Mahavishnu Re-Defined II - A Tribute To John McLaughlin, the second volume in double album of the musical project Mahavishnu Re-Defined, in which Gianfranco Continenza participated, among others, with Surinder Sandhu, Steve Vai, David Torn, Allen Hinds, George Colligan, Kai Eckhardt and Michael Manring.

In 2008 he participated in the Bratislava Jazz Days, considered one of the most important festivals of European jazz music, in which it was also filmed in Italy as part of a special by Rai 3 dedicated to him.

In Italy he has participated in various jazz festivals, including the Fiorenza Jazz '03 of Fermo and the Jazz sotto la torre of Palena of 2008.

His first solo album, The Past Inside The Present, featuring Dante Melena, Maurizio Rolli, Angelo Trabucco, Scott Kinsey, and Bill Evans, reached number one in ranks among the top 100 albums in the jazz-fusion category of Tower Records, and was the second best-selling album by ESC Records in 2008.

His interpretation of John McLaughlin's "One Word" was included in the 2008 collection Mahavishnu Re-Defined - A Tribute To John McLaughlin, a double album of 24 tracks written or inspired by the British guitarist, conceived by guitarist Jeff Richman who recruited famous guitarists to rework the classical material of the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

The Heaven Jazz “Gianfranco Continenza Signature” guitar, meticulously studied together with the Parma luthier Fausto Fiorini, was presented in September 2007, in Milan, at the MEET, the Italian organization that supports digital culture and creative technology.

In 2000 he performed with the Cuban percussionist Ernesto Rodríguez Guzmán, known as Ernesttico, and the Neapolitan bassist Pippo Matino at the historic Kabala Jazz Club in Pescara, where was recorded the bootleg CD Live At Kabala Jazz Club.

In September 1992 he graduated with honors from the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California, specializing in different musical styles, from jazz and jazz-fusion to rock, from blues and funk to Latin music.

He moved with his family from Turin, where he was born, to Pescara, he played in several local bands and in 1986 he recorded the guitar in two songs, "At the End of the Last Chapter" and "Lucy Cruel", respectively third track of side A and first track of side B of the LP Hard Incursion by the Unreal Terror, considered one of the most promising Italian heavy metal bands of that years.

Gianfranco Continenza (born February 1, 1968) is an Italian guitarist from Pescara, Abruzzo.