Alessio Menconi was born in Genoa on January 8, 1970. He began on drums at eight before switching to guitar at ten, which he taught himself, and launched his professional career at sixteen playing blues with the Big Fat Mama Blues Band. Early sideman work followed with bassist Rosario Bonaccorso and trumpeter Giampaolo Casati, including a session on the Giampaolo Casati Trio's In Jazz (1994, Caligola).

In 1992, Menconi joined Genoa's Bansigu Big Band, with which he recorded two albums, L'Isola Di Bansigu (1998, Dischi Della Quercia) and Now We Can (2001, Splasc(h) Records). On Now We Can, he takes the guitar solo alongside guest flugelhornist Paolo Fresu on the Thad Jones composition "A Child Is Born," on the same album where Enrico Rava appears as composer and trumpet soloist on "Il Viaggio." The same year as joining Bansigu, 1992, he won the "AICS" best-soloist award at the Gran Prix du Jazz; in 1993, at 23, he won first prize as best young Italian jazz guitarist at the Eddie Lang Jazz Festival in Monteroduni, the competition named for guitarist Eddie Lang (born Salvatore Massaro), whose parents came from the town.

In 1995, Menconi became a session guitarist for drummer Billy Cobham's Acoustic Performance European tour and continued as an occasional guest in the years after. That same year he began a nine-year run (1995-2004) as guitarist for singer-songwriter Paolo Conte, recording four albums with him - Una Faccia In Prestito (1995), Tournée 2 (1998), Razmataz (2000) and Reveries (2003) - and touring Europe, including two appearances at the Paris Olympia (1995 and 1998) and a 2001 date at Umbria Jazz. In 2003, his recording of Jimi Hendrix's "Manic Depression" appeared on Voodoo Crossing: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix, the only Italian guitarist on a bill that otherwise included Robben Ford, Steve Lukather, Hiram Bullock and Larry Coryell; a second Hendrix-tribute appearance followed on Gypsy Blood: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix Vol. 2 (2004).

As a leader, Menconi's discography opens with Argot (2000) and continues with the trio album From East to West (2008, Abeat Records, with bassist Riccardo Fioravanti and drummer Stefano Bagnoli). In 2010 he formed Adventures Trio with drummer Aldo Romano and keyboardist Luca Mannutza, releasing the trio's self-titled album on Abeat Records that October. Sketches of Miles (2013, with Alberto Gurrisi and Alessandro Minetto), a Miles Davis tribute, was named among Jazz It magazine's 100 best jazz records of 2014. Historias (2018, Nadir Music) followed, featuring a long list of guests including Christian Meyer, and Solo Ballad (2021), a program of standards for solo guitar, is his most recent leader release. Alongside his own name, he co-leads Trio Bobo with percussionist Christian Meyer and "Faso," which has released three albums since 2005: Trio Bobo (2005), Pepper Games (2016) and Sensurround (2019).

Since 2006, Menconi has taught jazz guitar at the Ghedini Conservatory in Cuneo and the Niccolò Paganini Conservatory in Genoa, where his course is listed as "Strumenti a Corde per i Nuovi Linguaggi Musicali." He received the "Jazz Lighthouse" career-achievement award in 2009, and in 2012 was the only Italian guitarist featured in the compilation I più grandi chitarristi del mondo ("The World's Greatest Guitarists").

Menconi's own biography and interviews also name broader collaborations, including with bassist Jeff Berlin, drummer Jimmy Cobb, guitarist Franco Cerri, and Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta; no specific recording session with any of these could be independently verified for this profile, so none is treated as a confirmed discography credit here (see alessio-menconi_notes.md).

Menconi's catalogue runs from blues (his teenage years with the Big Fat Mama Blues Band, later the group Mama's Pit) through big-band mainstream jazz (Bansigu Big Band) to the standards-based straight-ahead repertoire of Solo Ballad and the electric, groove-driven fusion register of Sketches of Miles and his work alongside Billy Cobham. That range is also his teaching curriculum: his own guitar institute lists chord melody, improvisation, walking bass, comping and standards interpretation as core subjects, matching the mix of blues, bebop, fusion and straight-ahead jazz that press coverage attributes to his playing.