Paolo Damiani was born in Rome in 1952 and studied with Giorgio Gaslini, already profiled on jazzprofiles.com, and double bassist Bruno Tommaso, beginning his professional career alongside Gaslini in 1976. He graduated in 1981 with degrees in jazz composition and classical double bass, and started conducting in the late 1970s before moving into composing for radio and theater.

His own music runs across avant-garde, big band, post-bop, and free jazz, built on involved arrangements and instrumentation unusual for a jazz record. He has recorded and performed with Albert Mangelsdorff, Kenny Wheeler, Tony Oxley, Miroslav Vitous, Charlie Mariano, John Surman, and Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem, the last alongside clarinetist Gianluigi Trovesi, also already profiled here. He was a member of the avant-garde Italian Instabile Orchestra.

He co-founded the Testaccio Music School and the Italian Musicians Committee, taught at the Milan and L'Aquila Conservatories, and started a 20-piece national youth jazz orchestra, the IS Ensemble. In 2001, Musica Jazz's Top Jazz readers' poll named him Italy's best composer of the year.

Damiani's music sits within avant-garde and free jazz traditions shaped directly by his mentorship under Giorgio Gaslini, expanded through big band and post-bop writing and a long-running association with the Italian Instabile Orchestra's collective avant-garde approach.