Jason Ricci (February 3, 1974) is an American harmonica player and singer.

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Biography

Born 2/3/74 and raised in Portland, Maine. Son of contraversial buisnessman/politician/activist Joe Ricci. Ricci started playing music in punk bands at the age of 14. After the harmonica lead him to blues music he turned his attention in that direction. After a brief stint in College at B.S.U. with a major in Wild Life Management, he moved to Memphis TN where shortly there after he placed first in the Sonny Boy Blues Society contest at 21 years of age beating established artists like Michael Burks later that same year recorded his first album Jason Ricci (Self titled), he has quickly found his way among some of the best harmonica players in the world. Ricci is one of the only if not the only openly gay male performers touring on the blues circuit today. ^[1]

Jason Ricci has been in bands as a side man with blues greats Junior Kimbrough, R. L. Burnside Nick Curran and others. He has recorded with Walter Trout, Cedric Burnside, Motor City Josh, Rich Cohen and many others. In 1999, he won the Mars National Harmonica Contest, and began playing with underated acoustic blues ace Keith Brown, later recording with him as well. In 2000, Jason received a break through two page write up in Blues Access magazine by Adam Gussow (harmonica player for Satan and Adam) saying:



After 15 months with Big Al and the Heavyweights, he started his own band Jason Ricci & New Blood in 2002. In 2005, Jason was honored with the Muddy Waters Most Promising New Blues Artist award, The band as a whole has been nominated for Blues Band of the year three times by Blues Wax magazine, Ricci won the Blues Critic Award for Harmonica player of the year (2008) and was nominated for Harmonica Player of the year by the B.M.A. awards as well in 2008. He can be found playing in cities all over the United States Canada and Europe, almost 300 days per year There albums for their current label Eclecto Groove have seen them as high as number four on the Billboard Blues Charts.

New Blood's repertoire includes 90% original material with standard-length songs, epic improvisational jams, sharp original lyrics, as well as melodic instrumental pieces. The setlist changes every night and may feature any of the dozens of songs in the band's catalog, including some classic blues, jazz, and funk covers like "Cissy Strut" (The Meters), "Get Up, Stand Up" (Bob Marley), "Shake Your Hips" (Slim Harpo), "Turkish Coffee" (Herbie Mann) and other covers ranging from Sun Ra to Lou Reed to Cheech and Chong all changed to match the bands sound.

Jason encourages audience taping and has many shows available for free download at . These shows have been downloaded by thousands of music fans around the world, according to the site statistics. Jason Ricci & New Blood's live shows may best be described by Blake Taylor, writer for Cincinnati City Beat :



Recently,^[when?] Ricci and New Blood were signed to Eclecto Groove, a new Sub Division of Delta Groove Records a label that was allegedly started just to house this band. His first album with the label, appropriately titled "Rocket Number Nine," was released October 23, 2007. Later in 2009 the band recorded the chart topping "Done With The Devil" for the same Label.

Discography 1995 “Jason Ricci” (self titled debut) North Magnolia Music

1997 “Down At The Juke” North Magnolia Music

2001 “Feel Good Funk” Self Produced

2004 “Live At Checkers Tavern” Blue Sunday Records

2005 “Her Satanic Majesty Requests Harmonica Music” (Compilation) –Self Produced

2006 “Blood on the Road” Rah Fox Records

2007 “Rocket Number 9” EclectoGroove Records

2009 “Done with the Devil” EclectoGroove Records

Note: This discography does not include appearances by Jason Ricci or other members of New Blood on other artist’s albums, or various compilations.

References

1. Interview: Jason Ricci