JASON RICCI & NEW BLOOD Source: Star Tribune Date: 07/2008 Writer: Jon Bream and Chris Riemenschneider, Claude Peck and Tom Surowicz

The Big Gigs: Upcoming shows in the week of entertainment

An amazing technician on the diatonic harmonica, Jason Ricci has become a big favorite of the jam band home-taping and tape-trading crowd, and an instant hero to harmonica geeks. On the new CD, "Rocket Number 9," Ricci and his band New Blood play a mix of blues, hard rock, jazz fusion and jazz improv that's problematic yet all their own. Ricci's harp blowing is mammoth and monstrously good on the classic Windy City-style blues blast "The Blow Zone Layer" and on the extended 11-minute hippie rock workout "Loving Eyes." (9 p.m. today, Famous Dave's. $5.) (T.S.)