Jimmy Burns
with Quique Gomez & Luca Giordano Band
“To me, there’s only one kind of music,
and that’s good music.” Jimmy Burns
Singer, guitarist,
and songwriter, Jimmy Burns is a contemporary bluesman
who
combines his Delta roots with R&B and soul to come
up with a sound uniquely his own.
Burns is a charismatic performer with an expressive,
soulful, voice and a melodic guitar
style to match.
With a keen sense of his musical heritage Burns has
created an upbeat style that has
won critical acclaim both at home and abroad. Born
near Dublin, Mississippi in 1943,
Burns was fascinated by music early on. He loved the
sounds coming out of the church,
and the blues he heard on the streets. Burns’ sang
in church and taught himself how to
play guitar while he was still in the Delta. One of
his particular favorites was Lightnin’ Hopkins,
His oldest brother, renowned Detroit bluesman Eddie
Burns, is also a guitarist who played with John Lee
Hooker for a number of years before striking out on
his own.
Burns was 12 when his family moved to Chicago. Within
a year he was singing with a
gospel group called the Gay Lites. Secular music also
beckoned. Living on the Near
North Side, he was caught up in the music of The
Impressions and Major
Lance who
would rehearse in a park near his home. In 1959, at
the age of 16 he joined The
Medallionaires, an established vocal group, and did
some recording. Burns was also part
of the folk scene in the early 60s. He sang and played
guitar at The Fickle Pickle,
(booked at that time by Mike Bloomfield), the
Gate of Horn, and coffeehouses around
town.
As R&B turned to soul in the 60s Burns cut a few
soul singles for the USA, Minit,
Tip Top and Erica labels. One of his Erica singles, I
Really Love You,
is a collector’s item in Great
Britain. Burns traveled throughout the Midwest, with
a band called the Fantastic Epics.
They appeared at the Arie Crown
Theatre in Chicago
on a bill with Jeff Beck and
the Yardbirds. He formed his own band in the late 60s called
Jimmy Burns and the Gas
Company. The reality of raising a family however, cut
short Burns’ full-time musical
career. Throughout the 70s and 80s he stayed close
to home, continuing to play clubs
and concert venues around town.
With the blues never far from his soul, Burns returned
to playing full-time in the midnineties.
He started out with a regular gig at Smokedaddy’s
in Chicago, and it wasn’t
long before Bob Koester of Delmark
Records signed him
to record a CD. Leaving Here
Walking was a hit right
out of the gate, winning Best
Blues Record of the Year,
from the National Association
of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD), the French
Academie Du Jazz’s Big Bill Broonzy
Award, and two W.C.
Handy Award nominations. National
and international tours followed, as Burns played to
enthusiastic audiences in clubs and
festivals across the country, and in Europe and Japan.
With three Delmark albums under his belt, and an DVD/CD
release due in February 2007 Burns
is primed to take his soulful, rockin’ blues and R&B
to a wider audience.
To represent Italy in its line-up we found Luca Giordano.
Luca started to play his guitar when he was 20 years
old, improving year by year his style with a deep passion
for the Blues. In L'Aquila he has the first experience
on stage with the "Jumpin' Eye
Blues Quintet", playing
in the most important blues clubs and festivals, and
performing like opening act for Lurrie Bell, Big Jack
Johnson, Nathaniel Peterson and many others.
They received
awards as "Best Blues Band ADSU" on 2003 and "Best
performance" at the "Tornimparte
Rock and Blues Fest 2004".
In few years, Luca started to play with many
famous italian musicians, like Vince
Vallicelli (2003
Italian Swing Award Winner), Pippo
Guarnera, Joe Galullo, Nick Becattini and others.
On the summer 2005 he decides
to move to Chicago for a Blues
Summit, studying in
a seminar with his idol, and blues icon, Mr.
Chris Cain. In this period, livin' in Chicago, he plays in
the most important Windy City blues clubs like Buddy
Guy's Legends, Rosa's Lounge, House of Blues, Andy's
Jazz Club, Kingston Mines.
On 2006 Luca starts many
collaborations with international musicians like the
great singer Sharon Lewis,old school guitar player
James Wheeler, Charlie Love and others, and he had
the pleasure to play on the Chicago
Blues Fest 2006 with the legendary Muddy
Waters Band, with Willy "big
eyes" Smith on drums, Calvin "Fuzz" Jones on bass,
Bobby Dixon (Willie Dixon's son) on Piano and Terry
Harmonica Bee, for three consecutive days on the Mississippi
Juke Joint Stage.
He also had many italian tours with
special guests, playing with his band and famous musicians:
Shirley King, BB King's daughter, then with Nellie "The
Tiger" Travis, 2006
Chicago Blues Diva and nomination
for "Best Album" at the Chicago
Music Awards, with
his teacher and idol Mr. Chris Cain, and with the great
Sax Gordon Beadle, recording a new live Cd "Live
at Naima".
At the moment Luca is always travelling
between Abruzzo and Chicago, playing with different
musicians from Italy and from the States. On stage
with: Big Jack Johnson, Billy
Branch, Lurrie Bell, Bob Stroger, Bonnie Lee, Carlos
Johnson, Les Getrex, Linsey Alexander, Peaches Staten,
Matthew Skoller, Junior Watson, James Thompson, Nick
Becattini, Enrico Crivellaro and more.
