NOTIZIE PRINCIPALI
He began to play electric guitar at the age of 15 as a punk guitarist, but within two years he discovered Jimi Hendrix's and Led Zeppelin's hard rock music and right after he got to know and appreciate the blues classics like the three Kings, Muddy Waters and Howlin'Wolf, not forgetting the first Clapton. He started to perform as a musician in his hometown being still autodidact achieving a local success that made him decide to take the path of professionalism.
Thereafter he devoted himself for 10 years to studying his instrument with the master Gianni Martini from the beginning up to jazz improvisation.
Since 1990 he worked as a professional in the best known orchestras and bands of Italy, playing also abroad and overseas tours, and many TV broadcasts.
From 1999 he became also sound engineer and producer, and he organized in Genoa the audio and video producing house CreativStudio (www.creativstudio.it )
In 2003 he wanted to get back to his first true passion, the blues, and established the Blues Train, (www.myspace.com/bluestrainitaly ) with which he started playing a repertoire of original and covered tunes, with a rockblues sound in between Stevie Ray Vaughan and ZZ Top.
The band, with several lineup changes, carried on during the years until now a busy concert schedule.
When Little John Guelfi moved to Turin in 2007, a brand new lineup of the Blues Train had to be rebuilt.
The present Blues Train lineup is:
Little John Guelfi: vocals, guitar
Roxy Corallino: vocals
Alberto Rocca: keyboard, vocals
Alessandro Fassina: drums
In this circumstance a female voice was added to the lineup, already enriched by the guitar ability of Guelfi: she's the young discovery Roxy, who carries a voice that's up to the level of the best blues interpreters.
Guelfi immediately wrote down songs suitable to her vocal range.
With this lineup Little John Guelfi & the Blues Train got in touch with Crotalo Records of Ravenna (Italy), and record their debut CD, “Vittima del Blues”(Victim of the Blues), published by Crotalo in October 2010.
The record, that's made of 16 tracks recorded and produced by Guelfi in his own studio with vintage instruments from the '60s, is made up of ten original tunes written in Italian by Guelfi and sung by him or by Roxy, and of six cover versions of tunes from The Beatles to Hendrix.
We choose of singing in Italian because for us, the blues is a kind of music that must communicate feelings to the listener more than other kinds of music, whether sadness, happiness or rage. The English lyrics too often gets lost in Italy because of language barriers between the singer and the listener.
We want to fill this “gap”, and produce music even more authentically than others “Spaghetti Blues”.
CONTACT & BOOKING: guelfi@creativstudio.it tel.+393477882850
Giovanni Guelfi 19 gennaio 2011 05:20