Blues in the Box: Jason Ricci and the Bad Kind

Multiple award-winning jazz, funk and blues harmonica player, singer, songwriter Jason Ricci has played with, toured and recorded with some of the world’s most esteemed blues, jazz, rock and New Orleans musical legends. Jason is included in nearly every top ten and top twenty lists of harmonica players in magazines and all over the internet. His fascinating career and life has led him up to the highest musical mountain tops such as performing at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, recording a Grammy winning record with Johnny Winter, winning three Blues Music Awards and numerous nominations from The Blues Foundation only to fall all the way down to the lowest valley’s of addiction, homelessness, jails and back up again. Today his sincere recordings, shows, songs and incendiary harmonica playing continue to tell the story of life and garner new fans to add to an emotionally devoted following of dedicated music lovers.

Jason is a fixture of the New Orleans music scene as well as the international folk, blues, jazz scene and in 2017 won his second Blues Music Award for “Best Instrumentalist Harmonica” and the “Harmonica Player of The Year” award from S.P.A.H. (The Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica). In 2019 Jason Ricci was invited by Jazz legend Terence Blanchard to record music for Tyler Perry’s movie a “Jazzman’s Blues.”

Today Ricci is busy playing locally and internationally with his band “The Bad Kind” and the Ricci/Krown Trio. Jason Ricci is frequently a first call sideman/addition for the two time Grammy nominated New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian funk band Cha Wa, Walter Wolfman Washington, Nick Moss, JP Soars, Damon Fowler, Lurrie Bell and the many others that call. He recently recorded on The Blues Music Award Nominated album by “The Altered Five Blues Bands”: “Holler if you hear me” and has performed with them as well. On the BMA nominated album He can be found often at home in New Orleans teaching music, harmonica, running his popular YouTube channel and playing with the best that New Orleans and the United states has to offer in the diverse styles of jazz, funk, blues, rock and jam band music. Jason Ricci is endorsed by Hohner Harmonicas, Blue Moon Harmonicas, Harp Gear Amplifiers and has his own line of signature pedals and a harmonica microphone from The Lone Wolf Blues Company.