Giampaolo Casati is a Genoese trumpeter, arranger, bandleader and teacher who has worked for four decades in Genoa's jazz scene and in big bands across Italian and international jazz. He was born in Genoa on September 12, 1959, took his trumpet diploma at the Niccolò Paganini Conservatory in Genoa in 1985, and studied jazz at the Dall'Abaco Conservatory in Verona, big-band arranging with Cesare Marchini and harmony with G. Cavo.

His first significant engagements, from the 1980s, were with Gianni Basso's A.T. Big Band and the quartet of drummer Tullio De Piscopo. By 1992 he had joined Giorgio Gaslini's Grande Orchestra Nazionale di Jazz; the Discogs credits place him in its trumpet section on the orchestra's Live (Soul Note, 2000), alongside Giorgio Gaslini at the piano and a trumpet section that also included Emilio Soana, Alberto Mandarini, Claudio Corvini and Flavio Boltro. In the mid-1990s he recorded with the Keptorchestra on two Caligola albums built around visiting American saxophonists, Sweet Sixteen (1994, with Steve Lacy) and Miss Etna (1996, with Joe Lovano).

In 1991 he co-founded the Bansigu Big Band in Genoa with bassist Piero Leveratto and took over its leadership. Casati is credited as trumpeter and conductor on the band's albums L'Isola di Bansigu (1998, Dischi della Quercia) and Now We Can (2001, Splasc(h) Records), the latter recorded live at Genoa's Teatro della Tosse in 1997 with guest soloists including Paolo Fresu, Enrico Rava and Gianluigi Trovesi. A third record, Bansigu Big Band With Lee Konitz (2004, Splasc(h) Records), was made in 2003 with Lee Konitz as the featured alto saxophone soloist, and Casati again in the trumpet section.

In 2002 Carla Bley invited him to play in her big band. He is the trumpeter on the two Carla Bley Big Band records made in his years there, Looking for America (2003, WATT/ECM, recorded in New York in 2002) and Appearing Nightly (2008, WATT/ECM, recorded live at the New Morning in Paris in July 2006). Two unofficial live recordings of the band, from Umbria Jazz in 2002 and from Perugia in 2006, also credit him.

Under his own name, or as co-leader, Casati has recorded in a range of small-group settings. In Jazz (1994, Caligola) is a drumless trio record with bassist Rosario Bonaccorso and guitarist Alessio Menconi. Memories of Louis (1998, Azzurra Music) is a tribute to Louis Armstrong made up entirely of Casati's own compositions, including the multi-part Memories of Louis Suite. Royal Garden Blues (2002, Splasc(h) Records) is a second Armstrong tribute, in duo with pianist Riccardo Zegna, followed by a second duo record with Zegna, Paris Blues (2015, Fonè), recorded in February 2015 in the cellar of the Palazzo di Scoto di Semifonte in Certaldo Alto and drawing largely on Duke Ellington repertoire. Novo (2010, Caligola) returned to the trio format with Piero Leveratto on bass and Marcello Tonolo on piano. Melodies (2019, Caligola) is a quartet record with pianist Andrea Pozza, bassist Dino Cerruti and drummer Rodolfo Cervetto, and Six Friends for Bicio (2025, Caligola) is a sextet tribute to the saxophonist Maurizio Caldura Núñez, co-led with tenor saxophonist Michele Polga and pianist Marcello Tonolo and recorded in November 2024. A separate line of releases with the Massimo Faraò Trio, among them Jazz Trumpet, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2017) and Dreamin' Trumpet (2020), are streaming-catalog records not listed on Discogs.

Beyond those bands, the Paganini Conservatory's faculty biography credits Casati with more than 80 recordings. His sideman work runs from Pietro Tonolo's Disguise (1997) and Dajaloo (2013) through the Torino Jazz Orchestra's Ow! In Honour of Gianni Basso (2011) and Jubilation (2013, with Dusko Goykovich), the soundtrack and studio albums of guitarist Battista Lena (L'Albero delle Pere, 1998; Domani, 2001; I Cosmonauti Russi, 2002; Mi Ami?, 2013) and Federico Bonifazi's Autumn Colors Suite (2019, SteepleChase LookOut). He has also played trumpet or flugelhorn on pop and cantautore sessions for Angelo Branduardi, Anna Oxa, Vinicio Capossela, Gianni Morandi, Lucio Dalla and Tullio De Piscopo, whose 80 Tullio (2026) credits him on trumpet.

Casati has also built a long teaching and organizing career. He taught at the Louisiana Jazz Club school in Genoa from 1984 to 1994, at the Civica Accademia Musicale in Ovada from 1991 to 2005, and at the Vivaldi Conservatory in Alessandria from 2005; he spent eleven years on the faculty of the Verdi Conservatory in Turin and now leads the jazz ensemble course at the Paganini Conservatory in Genoa. Since 1999 he has been artistic director of the Giuseppe Conte Music School in Genoa, where he teaches trumpet, improvisation and big-band practice and conducts the Conte Big Band. He has given seminars at Siena Jazz, the Marseille Conservatory and Duke University in North Carolina, and served as artistic director of the Acqui in Jazz festival (from 1995) and of Portofino ai Confini del Jazz (2002 to 2004). In August 2026 he led a "100 Miles Tribute" quintet at Bajardo Jazz, marking the centenary of Miles Davis's birth, with Andrea De Martini on tenor saxophone, Zeno De Marco on piano, Marco Bottini on electric bass and Gigi Marras on drums.

His biographies also name American musicians he has performed with, including Jimmy Cobb, John Hicks, Benny Golson, Clifford Jordan, Ben Riley, Ralph Moore and Steve Swallow. Those are biographical claims without a specific recording behind them, so they are listed here without being treated as documented collaborations.

Casati's playing sits in the mainstream and post-bop tradition, with a firm grounding in big-band trumpet. His own records show a repertoire built around Armstrong (Memories of Louis, Royal Garden Blues), Ellington (Paris Blues) and standards (Melodies), alongside original compositions (In Jazz, Novo). He works comfortably as a lead trumpeter, section player, soloist and arranger, and has been credited on cornet and flugelhorn as well as trumpet. Big-band writing, learned from the Genoese arranger Cesare Marchini, runs through his career: he co-founded and conducts the Bansigu Big Band, arranged for the Ottimo Massimo Grand Band (2021) and leads the Conte Big Band as a teacher. Alongside the jazz work, his session credits with pop and cantautore artists show a second side of his trumpet playing, but his own records, teaching posts and band memberships are all in jazz.