Pippo Matino was born in Portici, near Naples, on December 19, 1965. He picked up guitar as a boy, inheriting an interest in music from his father, then switched to bass at fourteen and was playing professionally by sixteen. He was largely self-taught, took some lessons from Gianfranco Gullotto, and cites Jaco Pastorius as his central influence on the instrument. Jazzitalia's biography places his earliest jazz experience in Naples alongside pianist Lello Panico, saxophonist Maurizio Giammarco, alto saxophonist Massimo Urbani and pianist Danilo Rea, followed by work with guitarists Pietro Condorelli and Antonio Onorato and reedman Daniele Sepe; none of these early Naples-era credits turned up in Discogs's own release-level data for Matino, so they are recorded here as sourced biography rather than session-verified dates. His association with Onorato is independently Discogs-confirmed: he plays acoustic and electric bass on Onorato's 1990 album "Gaga" (Nueva). Italian-language sources also describe a roughly year-long spell as a touring member of James Senese's Napoli Centrale, Naples's pioneering jazz-funk band; this credit likewise does not appear in Matino's own Discogs discography and is reported here as biography.

Matino relocated from Naples to Rome, where in 1993 he released his debut album as a leader, "Bassa Tensione," on Via Veneto Jazz - the Roman label's first-ever release. He went on to lead or co-lead a run of jazz and jazz-fusion projects over the following two decades: "Essential Team" (2006, Alfa Music/Rai Trade), whose Discogs credits include alto and soprano saxophonist Stefano Di Battista and tenor/soprano saxophonist Giulio Martino; "Third" (2008, Wide Sound), which carries guest credits from trumpeter Flavio Boltro, saxophonist Rosario Giuliani, pianist Julian Oliver Mazzariello, guitarist Amit Chatterjee and drummer Paco Sery; "Trio Ostiko" (2009, Via Veneto Jazz), a co-billed trio with Giuliani and French drummer Benjamin Henocq; and "Joe Zawinul Tribute" (2009, Wide Sound), which carries a Discogs-confirmed saxophone credit from Emanuele Cisi alongside Chatterjee and singer Silvia Barba. With Barba he also co-led the "Bassvoice Project" (2010, Wide Lab) and its live document "Love and Groove - Live At The Place" (2012, Wide Sound). His most recent leader release, "Colorful Fogs" (2022, Azzurra Music), is billed to the Pippo Matino Dad Trio and carries Discogs-confirmed credits from Cuban drummer Horacio El Negro Hernandez and American trombonist Robin Eubanks. All About Jazz reviewed both "Third" and "Joe Zawinul Tribute" on release.

Alongside his own projects, Matino has built a long parallel career as an in-demand session bassist across Italian popular music, with Discogs-documented studio credits for singers including Mietta, Giorgia, Amedeo Minghi, Nino D'Angelo and Sabina Guzzanti, as well as for the dance act Spagna. His most prominent jazz session credit outside his own catalogue is on trumpeter Flavio Boltro's "Road Runner" (1999, Blue Note), recorded in Paris, where he plays bass alongside Di Battista on saxophone; biography also credits collaborations with Billy Cobham, Mike Stern, Javier Girotto and Horacio El Negro Hernandez, and a Pink Floyd tribute project, "Us and Theme," with pianist Rita Marcotulli since 2010. He teaches jazz electric bass at the Nicola Sala Conservatory in Benevento and pop-rock electric bass at the Luisa D'Annunzio Conservatory in Pescara, with past teaching posts at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma, the Nino Rota Conservatory in Monopoli and the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Como, and gave a masterclass at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2006.

Matino's playing is rooted in the jazz-funk and fusion vocabulary that grew out of Naples's own jazz-rock scene in the 1970s and 80s, the same scene that produced James Senese's Napoli Centrale, and it carries the clear imprint of Jaco Pastorius, his stated primary influence on electric bass. That identity plays out most directly on his "Joe Zawinul Tribute," a set of readings of Weather Report-associated material, and across the fusion- and jazz-funk-tagged catalogue he has built as a leader since 1993. He works comfortably at the border between jazz and Italian popular music, moving between his own jazz-fusion projects, session dates for pop vocalists, and straight-ahead jazz sideman credits such as his Blue Note appearance with Flavio Boltro and Stefano Di Battista.