Alessandro Paternesi was born in Fabriano, in Italy's Marche region, on May 9, 1983. His father was a drummer, and by his own account he was already keeping time on plastic containers at age two. He moved to Perugia at nineteen to study percussion at the Conservatorio "Morlacchi," earning his diploma in 2007 under Domenico Fontana, then continued to Rome's Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia for a jazz drums degree, completed in 2011. Alongside his classical training he studied jazz with Massimo Manzi, and later with Marc Miralta, Roberto Gatto, Jimmy Cobb and Ron Savage. Since 2012 he has taught jazz drums in the pre-academic programs at both Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Morlacchi Conservatory in Perugia, and is also listed on the drum faculty of the Conservatorio "Girolamo Frescobaldi" in Ferrara.

Paternesi's own vehicle as a composer and leader is the P.O.V. (Point of View) Quintet. Its debut, Dedicato (2012, Radar Music Records), paired him with saxophonist Simone La Maida, pianist Enrico Zanisi, guitarist Francesco Diodati and bassist Gabriele Evangelista; the Zanisi-Diodati-Paternesi trio drawn from that band was recognized in Musica Jazz's 2012 Top Jazz critics' poll in the best new talent category (sources disagree on whether the trio placed first or third in that category; see this profile's notes file). A second P.O.V. Quintet album, Melodico (2018, Pipo Music Records), swapped in guitarist Francesco Fiorenzani and was presented at Rome's Casa del Jazz that December. Reviewing it, Musica Jazz described Paternesi as a "melodic drummer" in the mold of Brian Blade, shaping compositions with song-like structures rather than conventional theme-solos-theme forms; the album itself grew out of what Paternesi called a wish to make "a bedtime album, full of melodies and intensity."

As a sideman, his longest-running relationship is with double bassist Enzo Pietropaoli. Their quartet's Yatra (2011) grew out of a series of concerts in India, its Sanskrit title meaning "journey"; two sequels followed, Yatra Vol. 2 (2013) and Yatra Vol. 3 (2015), then Yatra Songs (2022) with singer Cristina Renzetti. In parallel, Pietropaoli, pianist Julian Oliver Mazzariello and Paternesi recorded as a trio billed under their own names: The Princess (2017, Via Veneto Jazz), a set of pop and rock songs by John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Cole Porter, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, Pearl Jam and the Beach Boys reworked for piano trio, reviewed by All About Jazz. The same rhythm section, with Pietropaoli's Wire Trio, made Woodstock Reloaded (2018), and a differently constituted guitar trio with Giancarlo Bianchetti made Riot (2023).

He is also the regular drummer behind double bassist Giovanni Tommaso and pianist Rita Marcotulli: the three were billed together as the Tommaso Marcotulli Paternesi Trio for Around Gershwin (2017, Parco della Musica Records), and reunited, expanded to a quartet with saxophonist Javier Girotto, for the Giovanni Tommaso Quartet's Walking in My Shadow (2023). With cellist and bassist Paolo Damiani he has recorded across more than a decade: Pane e Tempesta (2010, EGEA), Classiche Musiche Leggere (2016, Casa del Jazz, alongside Danilo Rea and Rosario Giuliani) and the Paolo Damiani Unit's Memorie Future (2021, Parco della Musica Records). With vocalist Maria Pia De Vito he recorded Dreamers (2020, Via Veneto Jazz) and Dreamers Live (2021), a songbook of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Neil Young and Tom Waits, again with Mazzariello and Pietropaoli.

One further credit connects him to film history: Paternesi plays drums on the original soundtrack of Paolo Sorrentino's La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty, 2013, composed by Lele Marchitelli), which won the 2014 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Also on that session were Enzo Pietropaoli, pianist Roberto Tarenzi and saxophonist Max Ionata.

His further discography as a sideman includes the Enrico Zanisi Trio's Life Variations (2012) and Keywords (2014, CAM Jazz, with bassist Joe Rehmer); the trio SPL (2013, CAM Jazz) with trumpeter Fulvio Sigurtà and bassist Andrea Lombardini, an electronics-inflected date with guest spots for UK Hammond organist Ross Stanley and percussionist/electronics player Michele Rabbia; Francesco Bearzatti and Luigi Masciari's Noise in the Box (2013, Tosky Records); a guest date with Fabrizio Bosso on the Marco Postacchini Octet's Do You Agree? (2013) and Old Stuff, New Box (2018); Flavio Boltro on Greta Panettieri's With Love (2018); Daniela Spalletta and Giovanni Mazzarino's Sikania (2017); the Rosario Bonaccorso Quartet's A New Home (2019); vocalist Cristina Zavalloni's Special Dish (2014) and Special Moon (2017); and vocalist Ada Montellanico's Suono di Donna (2012).

Paternesi's own published biography also names broader collaborations with Paolo Fresu, Enrico Rava, Stefano Di Battista, Andrea Bocelli and percussionist Cyro Baptista, and festival appearances at Umbria Jazz, Veneto Jazz and the European Jazz Expo. None of these specific names could be corroborated against a Discogs release credit for this build, so they are named here as self-reported rather than independently verified; see this profile's notes file.

Paternesi is consistently described, including in his own words, as a "melodic drummer" - an approach explicitly compared in the Italian jazz press to Brian Blade's Fellowship Band, built on song-like structures and a preference for atmosphere and space over displays of technique. That character carries through both P.O.V. Quintet albums and into the small, largely acoustic settings he favors as a sideman: piano trios (Pietropaoli/Mazzariello), a working quartet with Giovanni Tommaso and Rita Marcotulli, and a substantial run of vocal-led dates (Maria Pia De Vito, Cristina Zavalloni, Daniela Spalletta, Greta Panettieri, Ada Montellanico) where the drums support song rather than drive a soloist's vehicle. Against that mainstream-acoustic core, the 2013 trio record SPL, with electronics and a guest Hammond organ chair, shows a more exploratory, fusion-adjacent side of his playing, though it remains an exception in an otherwise song- and standards-centered catalogue.