Pianist composer arranger producer and educator from Cali. In 2011 at 21 years of age, he has one of his first experiences in a concert with a great of Latin jazz the Peruvian Oscar Stagnaro, who is a professor at the Berklee School in Boston, USA. Since then, improvisation has been transversal in Caldas’ career.
The following year he joined the band of a great representative of Pacific folklore music, Leonor González Mina “La Negra Grande de Colombia”. This language of Afro-Colombian music is from there determinant for Caldas and is incorporated as a fundamental element for his formation. In 2013 he was invited by the Tamborimba festival to be part of the band of the master Robbie Ameen, who was drummer of Los Seis del Solar and was part of the albums made with Rubén Bladés. The same year already moved to Bogota, Giovanni is part of the production “Este es el tiempo” of the funk band South People with whom he debuted at Jazz al Parque in big band format opening the concert for funk legend Maceo Parker (James Brown’s saxophonist). At the end of this year, he plays a concert at the Festiafro in Medellín with Herencia de Timbiquí, with whom he continues to play on several occasions to date.
In 2014 he began his trips to Guapi Cauca in search of learning the chonta marimba and all the tradition of the Pacific. This contact with the nature of the music that was attracting so much attention in the city is the impetus that begins to formulate questions that until today continue to reconcile different answers from his way of conceiving his music. In the course of this year, he keeps some invitations to jazz festivals nationwide. Likewise, he maintains his relationship with the music of the Pacific fused in the city before a trip to Guapi, he plays at Rock al Parque on the closing night of the second day of the festival with the group Choquibtown, with whom he also travels to Cali weeks later.
He was part of the band of renowned singer-songwriter Lucio Feuillet with whom he traveled to Pasto to play at the emblematic Imperial Theater. He directed and made arrangements for the group Afrotumbao with whom he participated in the 2015 Centro Festival in Bogota. He performed a concert with the harpist Juan Pablo Rodríguez, harpist of the master Cholo Valderrama, where they play with the world of jazz and the llanera tradition. This year in April, he made a 6-month trip to Boston, Washington, and New York where he shared music with different jazzmen of the local scenes. In Boston, he performed a concert with the Lizje in Blue quintet at the Berklee Summer in the City festival. This trip is what the synalepha to the tenth, the ideas that Giovanni brought from his tradition narrow the ideas that he witnesses with the looks and gestures of the North American tradition and returns to Colombia with the decision to make his first album as a quartet. For this, he joins Juan Carlos Arrechea, Larry Ararat, and Diego Pascagaza with whom he shared the stage in different projects both jazz and folklore, and Cununao is born, his idea of Afro-Colombian piano from a marimba mentality very impregnated with jazz, something like Cuban pianism with a trio mentality and jazz derivation. The following year will be released the first album “Huellas”.
In 2016 he has some experiences with important national and international bands such as Sango Groove in Popayán, La Mambanegra in the anniversary of the magazine El Malpensante, Marcial Izturiz and Gerardo Rosales in the Feria de Cali, Gilberto Santa Rosa in the Cali bullring. That same year he is invited again by the Tamborimba festival to be part of the quartet of maestro Dafnis Prieto, professor at the University of Miami and winner of multiple international awards. In 2017 Cununao is invited to the Tamborimba festival, Ajazzgo festival, Comfandi theater, Utopia Festival, and Sevijazz. This year he is part of important productions such as the album “Los Taitas” by Juan Felipe Calderón, who also finds a sound of Colombian jazz through his contact with tradition; the album “Sensitive” by Alejandro Gamboa and the album “Amuleto” by singer-songwriter Maréh. With this great singer-songwriter from Cali, he travels to a tour in Mexico and they pass through Toluca, Cuernavaca, and Mexico City; he was the musical director of this band from that moment on. The following year they return to Mexico on tour with him.
“Silencio” is the second album of Cununao, recorded in 2018, which is presented at the Roberto Arias Perez theater in Bogota. With this work, he makes a trip to Europe to present it at the Jazzahead business conference. On this trip, he makes a concert in trio in Lucerne, Switzerland and one to solo piano in Aarau in the same country. He returns in the middle of that year to Colombia for a tour of the Colombian Caribbean (Cartagena, Santa Marta, and Barranquilla) with the trio of Juan Felipe Calderón.
In 2019 he performs a concert with one of the most renowned alto saxophonists in world jazz, Miguel Zenón, at the Cali Saxophone Festival. Then he accompanies the great Cuban trumpeter Pavel Zuzaeta at the Utopia Festival. At the end of this year, he began working with Andrés Leal, producer of Carlos Vives, and the following year he will be part of his latest album “Cumbiana” where he recorded keyboards for the song “Love for sale” with Alejandro Sanz, recorded marimbas in “Vitamina en rama,” and made clarinet arrangements for the big band song “Canción para Rubén” with the great Rubén Blades. He has worked as an arranger and pianist in productions such as “Narices Frías” by Colombian artist Juliana Velazquez; “La Mentira” by Calibre Orquesta with El Nene (Cuba); “Solo tú” by Calibre Orquesta with Alexander Abreu; “Bulungudjuba” with Miguelinho N’Simba (Guinea Bisau) and Alain Pérez (Cuba).
In the year 2021, he made his own record label Ceiba Producciones and started working for several artists in Cali and Bogota. One of the most outstanding artists of the label is Carolina Sarta, a singer-songwriter who to date has produced five singles and the album Des(a)nudar which has 10 tracks. One of her most listened songs is “Averío de ti,” a bolero where they invited Lucio Feuillet. In 2023 he starts working for Desta French, British artist Luciane Dom, Brazilian artist Pablo Watusi, singer from Bogota. In his catalog, he has also worked for Diego Castañeda, Lori Garcia, Belai, and Cala Garcia.
In 2023 Cununao releases his third album “Ligia,” an album recorded at Alto Estudio in co-production with Francisco “Kiko” Castro. This album has a confirmed international tour in Masstricht, Amsterdam, Paris, and Lyon in April 2024. At the end of 2023, Giovanni Caldas was pianist and keyboardist in the baseband of the gala night of the Best New Artist category of the Latin Grammy Awards held in Seville, Spain. There he accompanied the 10 nominees Andrés Cepeda, Carlos Vives, Monsieur Perine, and David Bisbal.