Bman's Blues Report

I just received the newest release, Live In Concert , from Mariëlla Tirotto and the Blues Federation and they have a solid groove. Opening with Mose Allison's If You're Goin' To The City , Triotto wastes no time getting into a cool R&B groove. Heins Greten takes the lead on keys and John Kakiay drums and Arno Hagemans' bass keeps it solid. Onny Tuhumena really adds a nice Carribean flavor on percussion along with Micha Sprenger on guitar. Step By Step has a jazzy feel with a funky bottom. Tirotto's vocals are particularly strong on this track, Sprenger lays in a tasty guitar line and Greten give the melody a ride. All I Can Take has a bit of a New Orleans swampy flavor accented by Greten on Hammond. Hagemans and Kakiay set a really nice Miles Davis kind of groove and Greten leads the way with a really nice piano intro on Somewhere Down The Road . Triotta shows her adaptability on this track with super vocal phrasing. Hagemans and Greten take nicely assemble...

Mariëlla Tirotto & the Blues Federation flirts with the boundaries of Blues and are carrying the traditional form into the future. An authentic band that plays adventurous and exciting blues of the new millennium. They win new fans at every next concert, and they are certainly not just blues-lovers. The musicians form an unprecedentedly tight group, but at the same time they are - each and every one of them – virtuoso soloists, the guitar player as well as the blues harp player as also the bass player/ pianist, the drummer and the guest-percussionist. Furthermore the evident pleasure that the band exudes, keeps the audience entranced from beginning to end. During a show you are swept off your feet by the extremely variable emotions, brought in a mixture of original material and adapted songs. In the more than three years of their existence they have played a lot of successful gigs during blues- and jazz festivals in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, as well as numerous...