Massimo Morganti is a trombonist, composer, arranger and orchestra conductor born in Fossombrone, in Italy's Marche region, on September 2, 1972. He trained first outside music, taking a commercial-technique diploma at the Istituto "Corinaldesi" in Senigallia in 1990, then studied trombone at the Conservatorio "Gioachino Rossini" in Pesaro, graduating in 1995. In 1997 he attended summer seminars at Berklee College of Music as part of the Umbria Jazz program and won a scholarship to study there with Phil Wilson, Jeff Galindo and Tony Lada. Back in Italy he continued advanced brass study with Giancarlo Parodi from 1999 to 2002 and improvisation with Roberto Ciammarughi, then returned to the Rossini Conservatory for a Band Instrumentation diploma in 2007 and a Composition diploma in 2011.

In 2001 he founded the Colours Jazz Orchestra, a big band built to play new Italian and international jazz writing, which he has directed ever since. The orchestra's first album under his direction, Nineteen Plus One (Astarte, 2009), sets eight big-band arrangements by Kenny Wheeler, who also plays trumpet and flugelhorn in the section; Morganti conducted, produced and mixed the record, and shares a track directly with Wheeler at the Discogs credit level. The orchestra went on to record "Quando M'Innamoro"...In Jazz (CJO, 2010), Home Away From Home (Neuklang, 2014), a set of American composer Ayn Inserto's charts, and Momenti. L'arte di Orchestrare i Classici (EGEA, 2021), arrangements of jazz standards from "Moment's Notice" to "Over the Rainbow." A samba-flavored offshoot, the Latin Colours Jazz Orchestra, recorded Quando M'innamoro In Samba (Incipit, 2013) with flugelhornist Franco Ambrosetti as a guest. Alongside the big band he leads smaller groups: the Massimorganti Quartet, whose album Musiplano (Neuklang, 2012) pairs originals with standards, and Machine Head 4tet, a quartet he co-founded in 2011 with saxophonist Marco Postacchini, which released Fuori Dal Chorus (2012). His one album as a fully co-equal leader under his own name is The Cause of the Sequence (Albore Jazz, 2015), a "Cool Chamber Jazz" trio with Dutch tenor saxophonist Barend Middelhoff and pianist Nico Menci.

Morganti's sideman work covers a wide range of Italian and international sessions. He has recorded with bassist Martin Wind's quartet and the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana on Turn Out the Stars: Music Written By or Inspired By Bill Evans (2014), conducting the orchestra behind pianist Bill Cunliffe and saxophonist Scott Robinson; with cellist Paolo Damiani on Pane E Tempesta (EGEA, 2010), doubling trombone and accordion; and with singer Cristina Zavalloni on both La donna di cristallo (EGEA, 2012, with her Radar Band) and Parlami Di Me (EGEA, 2021, with her ClaraEnsemble). He is a regular member of Marco Postacchini's octet, appearing on Lazy Saturday (2010), Do You Agree? (2013, with guest trumpeter Fabrizio Bosso), Old Stuff, New Box (2018) and the expanded One Finger Snap (2022). He recorded on Charles Mingus repertoire for Biagio Coppa and Achille Succi's Mingus Uni & Versus (2010), for once credited on tenor saxophone rather than trombone. Two later credits pair him with international names in Umbria: Ethan Iverson's Bud Powell in the 21st Century (Sunnyside, 2021), recorded live at Umbria Jazz Winter in Orvieto with the Umbria Jazz Orchestra, and Bill Frisell's two-disc Orchestras (Blue Note, 2024), whose second disc pairs Frisell's trio with the same orchestra. On both dates he sits in the trombone section alongside Federico Pierantoni, a trombonist he had already taught at the Bologna conservatory. Most recently he joined the brass quintet Koro Almost Brass for Plays Monk (Caligola Records, 2025).

Discogs credits him with 73 release-artist relationships in total, and his own biography states he has performed on more than 50 jazz recordings; the gap reflects several releases, including two of his own Colours Jazz Orchestra albums, for which Discogs lists no itemized personnel. His playing and conducting career, active since the mid-1980s by his own account, has also taken him to jazz clubs and festivals across Europe, South Africa, Colombia and Japan, and put him in front of a broader circle of musicians including Bob Brookmeyer, Bob Mintzer, Mike Stern and Maria Schneider, credits that appear in his own biographical materials rather than on a shared Discogs release.

Morganti teaches jazz trombone at the Conservatorio "Francesco Venezze" in Rovigo. He has published three instructional books through the Italian music publisher Volonté & Co: Speak!, on jazz trombone articulation, Impro(ve)!, on improvisation, and Arrangiate[vi]!, on arranging.

Morganti's own description of his music, on his website, is a sound that blends the tradition of the jazz orchestra with the colors of classical music, and his compositional approach favors orchestration that leaves space for soloists and ensemble color in the manner associated with Gil Evans. That dual identity runs through his catalog: on one side the big-band writing and conducting of the Colours Jazz Orchestra, built around commissioned charts from named arrangers such as Kenny Wheeler and Ayn Inserto rather than only his own pen, and on the other the pared-down "Cool Chamber Jazz" of The Cause of the Sequence, a trio without drums or bass built entirely from the interplay of tenor saxophone, trombone and piano. His composition and band-instrumentation diplomas, taken well into his performing career, reflect the same interest in orchestration as a craft distinct from playing.