By: Tom Branson
have been reviewing CDs for many years now and have the bald head and white beard
to prove it. During this time, I have listened to literally thousands of recordings
from a very wide variety of artists, ranging in style from folk blues to near metal
and every shape and size in between. While "purists" may not care for our approach
here, we are very pleased that we have reviewed such a wide range of artists, with
the common denominator of all being excellence. While I have reviewed a very large
number of recordings over the years, I have that I can recall only reviewed a couple
of all or mostly instrumental guitar recordings. I don't have anything against
instrumental recordings, but generally find that they rarely if ever hold my
interest from start to finish and therefore I cannot honestly recommend them to my
readers.
Welcome if you will today, perhaps to read of only the third all intrumental guitar
CD I have recommended to you, "Electric Roots" from an enormously talented Italian
guitarist Nicola Costa. Costa is an extremely gifted young 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. He
never wears you out on any particular sound or tone, but plays them all with
precision and power. He shows both the beauty and the beast to you here as he can
nearly lull you to sleep with a track of gentle beauty, then blow the hat off your
head with the fury of the beast.
His supporting players are also top notch and include Cristiano Micalizzi on drums,
Massimo Pizzale on bass, and both Ettore Gentile and Clemente Ferrari on keys, and
brother are they all good. Pizzale especially impressed me with his playing but then
again this is an extremely talented band.
I guarantee you that if you listen long enough to this set you are going to find
something you like. I would suggest you start with track 1 and continue through
track 10 as they are all wonderful tunes. My personal favorite was a bit difficult
to select, as all the material is so good, but I particularly enjoyed the 8 minute
plus "Little Boy Blues" which showcases a lot of why I am so impressed by this
artist: as gentle as a baby's breath one minute, as savage as an angry crocodile the
next.
"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. You can visit online with Nicola at his official web site
www.nicolacosta.com. Stop by and listen to sound samples and buy a copy here in the
US from Guitar9 at www.guitar9.com/electricroots.html. You will most definitely be
glad you did as this one will spend a lot of time in your player.
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