Nicola Costa

Nicola Costa - Electric Roots - 2007 - Nicola Costa

Guitarist, Nicola Costa's playing sounds like an Austin, Texas musician who travels to L.A. a lot. However, Rome, Italy is actually home for Costa whose latest recording "Electric Roots" is a Strat-o-Brother pick for 2007, and blasting my ears this very moment! If you like Johnny A, Robben Ford, David Grissom and Michael Lee Firkins, with heaping portions of fat "Tore Down House" Strat tones and tasteful twists, you absolutely must get Electric Roots! Yeah, the Scott Henderson influence shows up too. So what more can you ask for? Not simply a shredder or a fusion player, Costa synthesizes Blues, Funk & American Roots with Progressive guitar styles, and just goes over the top with TASTE! Each of the ten tunes on Electric Roots is a gem for combining sounds, styles and guitar playing approaches from a spectrum I can only describe as a road trip from Texas to California. Costa also wears all three hats of producer, engineer and guitarist. www.myspace.com/nicolacosta provides some tasty tracks and links for purchasing Electric Roots. Also, click on the above image to visit Nicola's main website. Ya gotta get this one folks!! © 2006-2013 JP HOLESWORTH UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED http://www.stratoblogster.com/2007/10/nicola-costa-american-electric-roots.html

"Costa is an extremely gifted guitarist who offers 10 tracks of original and extremely diverse instrumentals on this CD. He is all over the board style and sound wise, which adds much to the charm of this recording......."Electric Roots" is truly a remarkable recording by an artist who has such a bright future ahead of him. I am considering this a "must own" recording for anyone who likes great blues, blues/rock, or jazz guitar work or just plain good music in general". Tom Branson – Bluesrockers

"Nicola Costa is an outstanding, world-class player who stands tall with the best of them. The bluesy-fusion direction/vibe grooves hard and his liquid organic tones are authentic/pure. The heavy Michael Landau inspiration on "Little Boy Blues" shines deep. Costa & his people did a excellent job on the rather superb "Electric Roots" disc". Joe Romagnola - Grooveyard Records

All songs are written by Nicola, and it starts out with a song which reminds of "Left Turn" by Jeff Beck and is somewhat along the line of "Scatterbrain". On "The bridge" we hear tight funky beats on which Nicola plays the most wonderfull plays guitar solo with Beck as a large example. Right after that we get blues, which can be compared best with the layed back Hendrix and SRV songs, in "Little Boy Blues" with a nice hammond organ passage of Ettore Gentile... Also still a song where a considerable portion of blues is "Blue Day" a song in Scott Henderson style. Virtuoso! "Get On Dreamin" has not stolen its name, a thoughtful number with elements of (yes) Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughan mixed. Still worth mentioning is "Burning Night" a number song that seems along the lines of the work of Gov't Mule and where the typical Beck sound is audible again during the solos.The cd ends with a song called "Goodbye B", a jazzy song with great tone and talent. We were extremely surprised by this artist who brings qualitatively high standard music. Nicola Costa, is a name to remember! - Ronnie Bervoets/Rootstime

An outstanding instrumental album, featuring 10 original tracks of outstanding, powerful and dynamic blues, funk and progressive jazz/rock guitar with a real American roots flavour. If you like artists who can tastefully blend many different guitar styles like Robben Ford, David Grissom and Michael Lee Firkins, then this album will be right up your alley. Great music and VHR by A.O.O.F.C [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 127 Mb]

TRACKS

1. Left Turn 5:34
2. The Bridge 4:17
3. Little Boy Blues 8:15
4. Old School 4:20
5. Blue Day 5:15
6. Get On Dreamin' 6:39
7. I Don't Mind 5:18
8. The Orange Song 4:43
9. Burning Night 4:46
10. Goodbye B 5:59

All music composed by Nicola Costa

Nicola Costa – Guitar
Massimo Pizzale – Bass
Lorenzo Capelli, Clemente Ferrari – Keyboards
Cristiano Micalizzi – Drums

BIO

Musician and composer, Nicola Costa started playing guitar at the age of 10. In his early teens Nicola became interested in Rock, Blues and Electric Jazz music. He grew up with the music of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Weather Report and Jeff Beck. In the early 80’s Nicola played with several young bands covering a variety of musical styles and experiences. At the age of 19 he decided to pursue his musical education at the Academy of Music. Nicola is also a qualified double-bass graduate. In the meantime he continued his guitar studies with Scott Henderson (G.I.T - Hollywood L.A.) and Jim Kelly (Berklee College of Music - Boston). At the age of 23 he began session works. He has performed, on over 40 different television shows, including the Sanremo Music Festival from 2002 to 2006. He has recorded, toured and played on TV with a variety of international and italian artists like Lionel Richie, Natalie Cole, Michael Bublè, Blues Brothers, Gavin DeGraw, Jose Feliciano, Vasco Rossi, Andrea Bocelli, Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Renato Zero, Loredana Bertè, Luca Barbarossa, Amii Stewart, Alexia, Ivana Spagna, Marco Masini, Fiorella Manoia, Chiara Civello & Anà Carolina to name a few. He also worked with composer and arranger like Ennio Morricone, Nicola Piovani, Geoff Westley. In October 2007, Nicola released his first solo album "Electric Roots". The CD was well received by critics in Italy, Spain and in the US. Highlights included live performance at the most important Italian Rock Blues Festivals. Here's a quote from a review by Joe Romagnola of Grooveyard Records: "Nicola Costa is an outstanding, world-class player who stands tall with the best of them. The bluesy-fusion direction, hard vibes and grooves with liquid-organic tones are authentic and pure. The heavy Michael Landau inspiration on "Little Boy Blues" shines deep. Costa & his people did a excellent job on the rather superb "Electric Roots" disc". In 2009 “Electric Roots” has been nominated for a JPF Music Award in the “Best Instrumental Rock Album” category. In 2008, Nicola toured nationally and internationally with the legendary film music composer and director Ennio Morricone. In 2009, he toured with Fiorella Mannoia. In 2010, he toured and recorded with Fiorella Mannoia. He also has arranged songs for the live album called “Il Tempo e L’Armonia”. Nicola currently performes with his own Group and Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, David Lee Roth) Trio. © Nicola Costa 2012 - All Rights Reserved http://www.nicolacosta.com/biography.html