Q: And more specifically, what about your Blues Piano Bug?

A: In the early nineties, in Rome, there was a big shop which rented CD’s at very cheap prices, and it was just five minutes away. They had everything, really…Professor Longhair, Otis Spann, Dr.John, Katie Webster and even the most incredible pianist of all, James Booker. These are my main blues-piano teachers! But I greatly admire also Memphis Slim, Pinetop Perkins, Johnny Johnson and the younger virtuoso David Maxwell, who I met in Milan. I also owe a lot to several American tuition videos (from Homespun Tapes), mainly David Cohen’s and later Dr. John’s.

Q: In your gigs you now play both, but do you prefer the Blues from Chicago or the one from New Orleans?

A: I love both the same way. That typical warm, deep and simple sound, which everybody knows, is definitely a Chicago’s trademark, and Muddy Waters and Otis Spann always give me goose pimples. But the lesser known Blues from New Orleans is definitely more piano-based and varied, somehow closer to a slower, deeper rock’n’roll sound.