Throughout an international career lasting for more than three decades, Roberto Ottaviano has been widely regarded as one of the foremost exponents of the soprano saxophone. After a chance meeting, he came to be tutored between 1980-1986 by the great Steve Lacy (other studies were in the USA with the likes of Ran Blake and George Russell, and in Europe with Luigi Nono and Giacomo Manzoni).

He has collaborated with a dizzying array of creative music luminaries: an incomplete list would include the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Art Farmer, Albert Mangelsdorff, Chet Baker, Enrico Rava, Franz Koglmann, Ray Anderson, Steve Swallow, Irene Schweizer, Kenny Wheeler, Paul Bley, Myra Melford, Keith Tippett, Misha Mengelberg, Nguyen Le, Han Bennink, Mark Dresser, John Taylor, Graham Haynes, Marc Ducret, Trilok Gurtu and Pierre Favre. He was also a member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, and the seminal ensembles led by pianist Giogrio Gaslini. One particularly fruitful association, towards the end of the pianist's life, was with Mal Waldron, with whom he released the album 'Black Spirits Are Here Again' in 1996.

Ottaviano first encountered Hawkins' work through his performances with Louis Moholo-Moholo (with whom the Italian saxophonist has also performed and recorded). His first invitation to the pianist to collaborate was in fact not for a live performance, but for the sessions which yielded Ottaviano's 2014 double CD 'Forgotten Matches: The Worlds of Steve Lacy', an album which received many awards that year. Since this time, they have performed throughout Europe, and recorded a number of acclaimed CDs, including 'Sideralis' (featuring Gerry Hemingway and Michael Formanek), and their 2022 survey in duo of Mingus' music, 'Charlie's Blue Skylight'.