Marrakech Express
Biography
Born in Rome in 1953, Roberto started to play the guitar at the age of 12 devoting himself immediately to Delta Blues and Electric Rock-Blues. 1970- He worked with the Jazz - Rock band "Blue Morning" together with tenor saxophonist Maurizio Giammarco. After this experience he continued as a session man, working with top Italian artist such as Francesco De Gregori and Edoardo Bennato. He was also Bennato's live band leader until 1977. 1972 - He started to study the Dobro guitar. As a solo artis...
Born in Rome in 1953, Roberto started to play the guitar at the age of 12 devoting himself immediately to Delta Blues and Electric Rock-Blues.
1970- He worked with the Jazz - Rock band "Blue Morning" together with tenor saxophonist Maurizio Giammarco. After this experience he continued as a session man, working with top Italian artist such as Francesco De Gregori and Edoardo Bennato. He was also Bennato's live band leader until 1977.
1972 - He started to study the Dobro guitar. As a solo artist Roberto Ciotti and his band partecipated in all main blues festivals in Italy (Pistoia 1985) and in Europe (Berlin, Lucerne, Hamburg, Montreux), and also played with Brian Auger, Jerry Ricks, Louisiana Red, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Willie Littlefield.
1980 - He opened the italian concerts of Bob Marley at S.Siro Stadium in Milan and at Turin Stadium.
1983/1984 - Ciotti collaborated with Ginger Baker as lead guitarist of his band touring Italy and U.S.A.
1989 - Roberto and his band successfully toured U.S.S.R. Roberto Ciotti has appeared many times on main italian T.V. programmes and his video are regularly broadcasted by italian music T.V (D.O.C.) network Videomusic, receiving medium and high rotation.He was awarded the "Giovani & Giovani-Roccella Jonica" and the "Platea Oro" prizes for the Soundtrack to the film "Marrakech Express" directed by Gabriele Salvatores (winner of an Oscar Award in 1992 for the best foreign film).
1990 - The soundtrack of the movie "Turnè", irected by Gabriele Salvatores,was recorded in New York with Tommy Mandel (ex Dire Straits) on keyboards, Andy Herman (ex John Cale band) on bass and Joe Trump on drums. He also recorded with Edoardo Bennato the acoustic album "Edo Rinnegato" appearing with him on several main T.V. programmes.
1992 - Roberto Ciotti recorded for Gala Records his album "Road'n'rail", from which the soundtrack of Wilma Labate's movie "Ambrogio" (with Anita Ekberg and Francesca Antonelli) is taken.
He appeared at the "Bellinzona" festival and "Schaffausen" festival (Switzerland). In september Gala Records released and Roberto Ciotti produced his latest album "King of nothing" which is also the soundtrack of the film "Il tempo del ritorno" directed by Lucio Lunerti and winnes of the "De Sica" haward at the Sorrento Film Festival in 1993. To promote the album he has also appeared live with his band on "Roxy Bar" and "Tribù", two of the most popular shows on Italian T.V.
1995 - The film "L'anno prossimo vado a letto alle dieci" directed by Angelo Orlando is soon be released, and not only did Roberto write the soundtrack to this film, but he can also be seen performing one the numbers. In July he appeared at the "Pistoia Blues Festival" again,this time along side Bo Didley, Ry Cooder, and other great names from the Blues world, and in August was to be seen in Vadouz (Leichtenstein) at the "Little Big One" Festival, together with Luther Allison, Maceo Parker, Bob Geldorf and Joe Cocker.
1996 - Italian tour with the Heineken Music Club - Frankfurt Jazz Festival 7 July. He recorded "Changes" for the daily "Il Manifesto" which sales 25000 copies.
1997/1998 - Italian tour (Ostia Fest, Isola Liri, Testaccio Village ....), Festival Mediterraneo best Blues artist.
1999 - New CD "WALKING " and VIDEO for the daily "Il Manifesto".
2000 - 31/12/99 concert in Switzerland end Tour in Italy (BIG FESTIVAL "Villa Celimontana","Pistoia" ecc..)
2001 - Special TV in ARD (Germany) 5August interview and live concert
2002 - New CD May "Behind the door"
-Tour in Italy -Festival Jazz "Villa Celimontana"
2003 - 29 January appears at Philips Dubai international festival with Billy Cobham and others.
"NO MORE BLUE" inserted among the biggest hits of soul music in the compilation "IL VOLO" together with Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers and others.
2004- Tour in Italy at the best open air concerts.Guest in a TV show "Cominciamo bene" on Rai3
2005- Still in tour all over in Italy and became Art Director of "Eur Blues Festival" in Rome.Appears on "Missisipi Blues"(Tavernier)DVD, with a special of fifteen minutes on extra content. He's working on a new CD and writing a book, his biography.
2006 - April,Festival jazz ABU DABHI (from http://www.robertociotti.com/bioing.html ) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
