Alberto Parmegiani began playing guitar as a teenager and studied at the Conservatorio Niccolò Piccinni in Monopoli, near Bari, under Roberto Lambo. He then spent more than six years in New York, where he earned a jazz guitar degree at Mannes College of Music (now part of The New School) and studied with Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Vic Juris, Ed MacEachen, Phil Grenadier, Tommaso Lama, Pietro Condorelli and Peter Bernstein. From 1990 to 1994 he worked as an orchestra musician on Off-Broadway productions and, from 1992, on New York's jazz scene alongside bassists Phil and Larry Grenadier, drummer Dave Pullman and guitarist Philippe Monange. In 1991 he was the guitarist for the Italian-American ensemble I Giullari di Piazza at Luciano Pavarotti's debut at Lincoln Center.

He returned to Italy and settled in Rome by 2001, where he has since worked across jazz and classical settings and, from 2007, also in Arabic and flamenco contexts. He taught at Rome's Università della Musica from 2004 to 2008, and composed the score for the film Volevo Solo Dormirle Addosso (2004), which drew notice at the Venice Film Festival.

His confirmed discography as leader or co-leader runs to four albums. Blues For A Leaving Man (2006, DAD Records), a quartet date with bassist Marco Bardoscia, drummer Marcello Nisi, pianist Sergio Langella and tenor saxophonist Francesco Lomangino, was his recorded debut as a leader. Under A Shimmery Grace (2015, A.MA Records) followed with a quintet of Gaetano Partipilo (saxophone), Francesco Ponticelli (double bass), Enrico Morello (drums) and Enrico Zanisi (piano). On My Radio (2018, A.MA Records) is a quartet recording with pianist Claudio Filippini, bassist Daniele Cappucci and drummer Armando Luongo, with Enzo Bacco featured on tenor saxophone; its liner notes carry a written endorsement from bassist Larry Grenadier, praising Parmegiani as a "nuanced modern guitar player." Soul Hunters (2021, A.MA Records) moves into soul-jazz and neo-soul territory, co-led with Tullio Ciriello and Antonio Martino. A fifth title cited in some secondary sources, The Crossing (2012), could not be independently confirmed as a standalone release beyond a discography listing this build could not access directly; it may in fact refer to "The Crossing," the title track later included on Under A Shimmery Grace (2015). It is not counted among his confirmed leader albums here (see alberto-parmegiani_notes.md).

Alongside his own dates, Parmegiani has a real and ongoing career as a sideman, verified at the Discogs release-credit level. He plays guitar on Nicola Conte's Garota Moderna (2002, Schema, credited to Nicola Conte Apresenta Rosalia De Souza), on Marco Bardoscia's Opening (2007, Jazz Engine, alongside trombonist Gianluca Petrella), on Europe Connection's Way Out (2007, Dodicilune), on Raffaele Casarano & Locomotive's Replay (2009, EmArcy, featuring trumpeter Paolo Fresu), and on Davide Peluso Quartet's The Blue Zone (2016, A.MA Edizioni). His most recent confirmed credits extend into 2023-2025: guitar and a co-composer credit on Nicola Conte's Umoja (2023, Far Out Recordings, also carried onto its 2024 remix edition), a writing credit on the various-artists compilation The Congregation - Jazz Alliance International (2024, Mono Jazz), guitar on Stefania Arcieri's Insistent (2024, Dodicilune), and guitar on Till Brönner's Italia (2025, Ear Music), on the track "In Alto Mare."

In 2025 he toured a new Millennium Quartet, with pianist Bruno Montrone, bassist Giulio Scianatico and drummer Cesare Mangiocavallo (trumpeter Alberto Di Leone guesting), previewing a forthcoming album titled A Stream of Consciousness, described in press coverage as a continuation of the ideas on Under A Shimmery Grace. As of this writing no release date has been confirmed.

His own label's biography places his playing "from Wes Montgomery to John Scofield," and that range is audible across his own leader dates: clean-toned, harmonically dense post-bop writing for a guitar-led quartet or quintet, built around working relationships with pianists (Sergio Langella, Enrico Zanisi, Claudio Filippini) rather than a fixed working band. Two other strands run alongside that core catalogue. The first is a two-decade, still-active association with Bari-based producer and bandleader Nicola Conte, spanning Conte's bossa-inflected nu-jazz on Garota Moderna (2002) through to the Afro-spiritual jazz of Umoja (2023-24) - a relationship in which Parmegiani has moved from session guitarist to credited co-composer. The second is Soul Hunters (2021), a soul-jazz and neo-soul record on which he is composer and co-leader rather than sideman, closer in feel to classic Blue Note-adjacent soul-jazz than to his own quartet dates.