Matteo Paggi is a trombonist and composer born in 1997 in Fiuminata, a small town in Italy's Marche region. He began studying trombone at twelve and trained as a classical orchestral player in Italy, earning top marks and a place among his conservatory's ten best students in 2016. In 2017 he won a principal trombone audition with ONCI, the Italian National Orchestra of the Conservatories, and spent part of that year studying composition, chamber music and conducting at Stanford University and Marquette University in the United States. In 2019 he moved to Amsterdam to complete a master's degree in jazz trombone at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and has been based abroad since, in the Netherlands and more recently France.

Paggi leads two recorded projects of his own. Words (Aut Records, 2024) documents W O R D S, a method of composition and instant improvisation he created, built around a quintet of trombone, flute, two violins, double bass and drums; the album is tagged Free Jazz on Discogs. Giraffe (Jam/UnJam, 2025) is his second leader album, recorded across two sessions three years apart, in Arezzo, Italy in autumn 2024 and in Hilversum, the Netherlands, in spring 2020, and features alto saxophonist Lorenzo Simoni on its first four tracks. Reviewing the album for The Arts Fuse, critic Michael Ullman praised Paggi's "multisectioned compositions" for their sudden shifts in tempo and dynamics, calling the record "full of surprises."

In 2024, trumpeter Enrico Rava chose Paggi for the trombone chair in his quintet Fearless Five, alongside guitarist Francesco Diodati, bassist Francesco Ponticelli and drummer-vocalist Evita Polidoro. The resulting album, Fearless Five (2024, Parco Della Musica Records), recorded at Casa del Jazz in Rome, was voted Best Album and Best Band in Musica Jazz magazine's Top Jazz 2024 critics' poll; in the same poll, Italian jazz critics voted Paggi best newcomer, and his composition "Apri Grande" was selected for the magazine's companion Top Jazz 2024 compilation album.

Paggi's other credits reach well outside the jazz mainstream. He plays trombone in The Fried Seven, a septet of young European musicians based in Amsterdam performing 1920s-style hot jazz and New Orleans repertoire; the group's debut album Late to the Party (Rivermont Records) won a Jury Prize at the first Karel Van Eerd Music Award in 2022. He also contributes trombone to the electronic-improvisation trio Morgenbarn, with Berlin percussionist Tilo Weber and Estonian saxophonist Maria Faust, and to the trio FLECA!, with Massimiliano Dosoli and Piero Conte, released on Aut Records. Further Discogs-verified sideman credits include brass on a 2022 Awa Fall / Dub On Mars reggae single, trombone and trumpet on composer Matteo Stella's 2023 electronic-classical release Anello Del Monte D'Aria, and piano on a 2024 large-ensemble composition credited to bassist Gasper Livk on the Clean Feed label.

Paggi's own description of his sensibilities spans "modern and contemporary jazz, traditional 1920s jazz, free and experimental improvisation, and electronic music," and his discography bears that out: a free-jazz quintet session, a 1920s-style hot jazz septet, a post-bop-leaning quintet album, and electronic-improvisation and sideman work outside jazz entirely. Across that range, reviewers single out his control of dynamics and tone, from quiet, minimal-vibrato melodic playing to sudden shifts in tempo and intensity within a single piece. Enrico Rava has praised his "outstanding control of his instrument" and continued work "going beyond technique," while Joe Lovano has cited the "passion and love" in his playing.