JASON RICCI & NEW BLOOD Source: Blues & Rhythm Magazine   Date: 02/2008 Writer: Waverley McTavish

Harp player/singer Jason Ricci has won the Sonny Boy Blues Society Contest, the Mars National Harmonica Contest, and the Muddy Waters Award for most promising new talent. He toured with Junior Kimbrough and R.L Burnside, and played with Susan Tedeschi, and Nick Curran and the Fabulous Thunderbirds. He resembles a punk rocker but he can really get around the harp, sometimes he sounds like Little Walter on speed, sometimes like Eric Dolphy or Roland Kirk.

This, his major label debut is not always blues, sometimes it’s jazz, sometimes funk, sometimes soul, but always extremely interesting. Eleven of the twelve cuts are originals by Ricci, or in collaboration with his guitarist Shawn Starsky. Stand out cuts are ‘Mr Satan’ (a tribute to Sterling ‘Satan’ McGhee), a brace of particularly outstanding instrumental workouts (‘The Blow Zone Layer’ and ‘Sonja’) demonstrating his command of the blues harp, and the closing cut, the only non-original on this set. It’s of course ‘Rocket Number 9’, penned by Sonny Blount aka Sun Ra, that doyen of daftness and genius. It ends a set that I’m sure won’t appeal to most readers of B&R, but that’s a pity as it pays repeated listening and gets under your skin eventually. Budding harp players should check out his instructional video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDnd1qfq8eo