INTRODUCING THE BLUECATS
The Bluecats are an international Blues Band led by vocalist/harmonica player Fabrizio Chiabrera, They bring the sound of vintage Chicago Blues, Jump, Swing and West Coast with a snatch of Boston flavor and a slice of Texas spice to your favorite bar !
CAUTION ! The Bluecats won't play any Blues-rock music, under any circumstances, so please don't ask ! Even if they get musically high sometimes, they won't perform nor harm this kind of Blues.
Their sound is typical of 50's and 60's Chicago Blues, as well as West Coast in the great T- Bone Walker tradition, and includes a whole lot of Blues style, but again, NO BLUESROCK !
As a five pieces band, The bluecats are :
Fabrizio Chiabrera : Harmonica and vocal.
Fabrizio comes from northern Italia. He started to play guitar when he was seventeen and his passion for american rooted music was immediately clear.
He studied music at “Turin Jazz Centre” with Dario Lombardo and with Fabrizio di Salvo at the “Lizard School” in Fontanetto Po. He has been a student of Paolo Bonfanti in Casale Monferrato. Despite his interest in guitar playing, this instrument was soon replaced by harmonica, which was his real passion.
The main event in Fabrizio's musical life was meeting Egidio “Juke” Ingala in Milan. With him, he learned the right techniques on how to play blues harmonica with typical groove and sound.
The following years saw him and various friends play in several blues bands, but it was only with the band “Blues Wine” that he became a skillful harmonica player and vocalist/singer.
Fabrizio joined the Bluecats in 2006 after seeing them perform at the Geneva Blues Summitt.
His influences are mainly Chicago Blues, West Coast Blues, Jump, Rock’n’Roll, Boogie Woogie. Fabrizio plays his harmonica with tremendous feeling and has a natural and rich voice.
Thierry Lucotte : guitar
Thierry is French, coming all the way from Dijon, Burgundy. He started playing guitar in his early twenties and soon found the meaning of it all when he discovered the Blues, thanks to an american girfriend who was also an harmonica player. He moved with her to Ann Arbor, Michigan and started to learn his way in blues guitar on his own.
As a self taught musician, Thierry is what is usually called a natural player, feeling and soul being the core of his guitar style. Along the years, he has met and played with quite a few Bluesmen from the US such as Dave Specter, Steve Freund, Sugar Ray Norcia, Monster Mike Welch, Bobby Mack as well as Swiss musicians like Laurent Gilliéron (guitar player, leader of Backstroke Blues Band and founder of the geneva Blues Summitt), Yves Staubitz and formed two of the best know Blues bands in Geneva during the 90's, Catfish and Coolblast . After years of playing in Switzerland and France ( he spent a year in Toulouse in the mid 90's where he played with Nicolas Leophante, future drummer of the Chris Duarte band), Thierry founded the Bluecats in 2005 in Geneva.
Cedrick Maurer : Piano and organ
Cedrick, of French and Swiss nationality is the secret weapon of the Bluecats. The youngest and cutest member of the band, he is an original member of the band since day one. A truly gifted musician, Cedrick is able to show an incredible maturity when it comes to play the Blues. His organ playing is in the likes of the best, his way of phrasing will make you enter in another world. There's only one thing that matters in Cedrick's life, music. His father was a piano player who transmitted the musical virus to his son. Cedrick is also a true scholar when it comes to music of the 50's, 60's or 70's.
Serge Michaud and Patrick Pégaitaz : drums / bass
The rhythm section of the Bluecats is made of well seasonned players, aboth coming from Geneva with tons of experience and decades of playing behind them. They equally provide the adequate musical foundation for the Bluecats, allowing each one in the band to confortably lay their solos the right way.
The bluecats, in addition to their own instruments will bring on stage :
• 1 vocal microphone
• 1 harp microphone
• 1 harp amplifier (Fender Blues Junior, Fender Bandmaster 5E7 depending the size of the stage)
• 1 guitar amplifier (Fender 5F1 Champ, Fender 5E3 Deluxe, Fender Deluxe Reverb or Fender Bandmaster 5E7 depending the size of the stage)
• 1 bass amplifier
• 1 complete drum kit
• 1 keyboard ( add to this a complete Hammond organ with Leslie cabinet or just the Leslie, depending room availability)
They will need :
• a complete PA system with 5 individual monitors
