Gianni Leone (Naples, september 15, 1953) is an italian musician and songwriter.

He started playing the piano at the age of 8, and at 11 he founded his first beat-inspirated group. In1970 he joined the progressive rock band Città frontale, that later became the more famous group Osanna.

In 1971 he joined il Balletto di Bronzo, that had already published the album, Sirio 2222. Leone becames quickly the group leader, and they publish Ys, a concept album inspired by a celtic myth. In 1973 the band dissolved, after publishing La tua casa comoda/Donna Vittoria, recorded only by Leone and Stinga. He played the piano in I mali del secolo by Adriano Celentano.

In 1974 Leone moved to Rome and started using the pseudonym LeoNero. After being a touring pianist, he started composing his own music playing every instrument and singing.

He then left Italy and moved to London first and New York next, where he composed and published his first solo album Vero and the single Fremo. He later went to California to work on his second solo album, Monitor, marking his shift towards the new wave genre. Side A is played with the help of the american group Optical Band, while the B side is entirely executed by himself.

In 1982, he gets back to Italy, publishing the singles Indossa il mio colore/Stanchiamoci insieme, produced by Richard Benson^[1].

After touring in Sweden, Austria and Italy playing in various groups, he joined the progressive rock band DIVAE between 1995 and 1997.

In 1995 he tried to reassemble the 1972 formation of il Balletto di Bronzo but did not succeed. Despite not being a founding member, he refounded Balletto di Bronzo, publishing the live album Trys in 1999 for Mellow Records. This new formation did not have any guitars, and featured Gianni Leone as pianist and singer, with various other bassists and drummers.^[2]

Between 1990 and 1992 he played in the trio Leone-Sorrenti-Gazzè with Max Gazzè and Duilio Sorrenti, playing songs from Il Balletto di Bronzo and other international covers.^[3]

In year 2000 a performance by the band was recorded for the cable television station TELE+; an amateur excerpt of this concert exists and was posted on YouTube, but no copy of the broadcast has been found; a copy had been promised to the artist by the staff of the defunct station, but was never delivered.

He takes part as a guest in some tracks of the album Cuma 2016 DC of a parallel version of Balletto di Bronzo (under the name Il Balletto Di Bronzo with Lino Ajello & Marco Cecioni) published by the labels Suonidelsud and NO Music NO Life

• 1972 - Ys (with il Balletto di Bronzo), Polydor
• 1977 - Vero, Harvest
• 1980 - Monitor, EMI/CBO
• 1999 - Trys (live with the new Balletto di Bronzo, containing some unpublished tracks), Mellow Records
• 2012 - On the Road to Ys..and beyond - live (btf)
• 2020 - Official Bootleg (recorded live with il Balletto di Bronzo), Black Widow Records
• 2022 - Balletto di Bronzo plays Beatles
• 2023 - Lemures (with il Balletto di bronzo)

• 1973 - La tua casa comoda / Donna Vittoria (with il Balletto di Bronzo), Polydor
• 1978 - Fremo / Vero
• 1980 - Strada / Piangi con me
• 1982 - Indossa il mio colore/Stanchiamoci insieme