Mario Layne Fabrizio

MARIO LAYNE FABRIZIO is an artist that presents with honesty, beauty, and magic. Each of his works is an adventure. He creates as a visual artist, composer, drummer, percussionist, filmmaker, and writer.

Around the world, MARIO has been presented at The Whitney Museum, Salzburg Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Panama Jazz Festival, Birdland, Kunming’s International Drum Festival, and the Kennedy Center. He has performed with notable musicians such as Cecil Mcbee, Claudio Roditi, Nilson Matta, Santi DeBriano, Joe Morris, Ali Boulo Santo Cissoko, Jason Palmer, Oran Etkin, Noah Preminger, and Volker Goetze.

Works he’s premiered include The Black Clown at American Repertory Theatre, Arturo O'Farrill’s Little Tiny Walls, and showcasing in Jason Moran’s STAGED exhibition. London Jazz News describes him pretty accurately as "ferocious but subtle," and Steve Smith of On The Record says that he presents “with assurance, charisma and infectious enthusiasm.”

Compositions of his have been acknowledged by The New York Times, AllMusic, FranceMusique, and you may find in-depth interviews about his visual art and multimedia works that are said to be “surreal, trippy dreamscapes” (Seattle Met) in Seattle Refined, KOMO News as the artist of the week, JazzTimes, and most recently in Earshot. MARIO’s works have been commissioned by National Sawdust, and recently, he completed a triptych mural project for MadArt.

Poetry and language exist to MARIO as a means of compressing abstract thought into stories, some of which are his published poetry in Art and Letters and his features at Boston’s Intercollegiate Poetry Festival and Grolier. He has won awards, grants, and/or fellowships with YoungArts, MassMOCA, Assets for Artists, Jack Straw Cultural Center, Mass Cultural Council, San Francisco EBCP, and the Foundation for Contemporary Art.

MARIO graduated with a BA in Jazz Studies from Boston’s prestigious New England Conservatory in 2018 and throughout that time, he studied with an array of teachers like Jabali Billy Hart, Cecil McBee, Joe Morris, Vijay Iyer, and Jason Moran. Studies before college were also formative and inspiring as he worked through the various programs with New Jersey’s Jazz House Kids, a jazz and community program run by Melissa Walker and Christian McBride.

Currently, his art exhibition “THE LAST MAGICIAN” is installed from January - March 2024 at AXIS GALLERY in Pioneer Square.