Melody Makers

Emanuele Fizzotti (who studied guitar at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles and has played with the Treves Blues Band and with Cristiano De Andrè) and Attilio Gili (who sang and played bass in Gli Hu!, one of the first Italian groups that dared to perform and record rock and r’n’b in Italy in the late ‘60s) form the band in the Spring of 2000.

The Melody Makers continue the musical legacy that Attilio Gili’s and Emanuele Fizzotti’s Zip Fastener Blues Band(rock, blues and swing band) left after they split up.
The Zip Fastener (who also has one CD to his name) played at “Sanremo Blues 1991”, one of the most prestigious music festivals in Italy, sharing the bill with Italian Blues artists such as Rudy Rotta or Tolo Marton and blues greats like Rufus&Carla Tomas or Jack Bruce.
Zip Fastener’s performance at the Festival was broadcasted on RAI 1 (the first national TV channel in Italy).

In Melody Makers the blues element is not just the simple repetition of the standard three chords but the starting point for a journey through different musical stiles such as rock, swing, r’n’b and funk.

In the Fall of 2001 Casm Records/More Sound released their debut CD which contains 9 self penned songs and 4 covers.

Since then, the MM performed in important international festivals such as “Vallemaggia Magic Blues” (Vallemaggia - Switzerland), “Soul Island Festival - Elba meets Pistoia Blues”(Isola d’Elba), “Tropea Blues Festival”(Tropea-VV), “Torrita Blues Festival”(Torrita di Siena), “Green Hills in Blues”(Atri-TE), “Blues Sotto le Stelle”(L’Aquila), “Blu Notti Blues”(Moncalvo d’Asti-AT), “Liri Winter Festival(Isola del Liri-FR).

In 2002 “Heartaches”, a track taken from their debut CD, was included in the soundtrack of “Va bene così”, a short film by Dario Casetti. The following year they wrote the soundrack for Casetti’s new film “Come mi immagini”, which was presented at the “Turin Film Festival”.

Their next CD, “Movin’ On”, was released in October 2004 on “New LM Records”, a Ravenna based indie which has recorded internationally known artists such as Pippo Guarnera, Vince Vallicelli and Nick Beccattini.

The CD contains 12 studio tracks written by Fizzotti&Gili and 4 “classic” live recordings: “I got you(I feel good)” by the legendary James Brown, “Stone free” by Jimi Hendrix, “Oh well” by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac and “Try a little tenderness” by the great Otis Redding.
With its more instictive feel and higher energy level, this second CD shows just how far the MM have gone since their first 2001 release.
After Attilio Gili’s death in April 2005, although well aware of the fact that Gili was irreplaceable both as their lead singer and friend, the MM started playing again in October 2005 as a trio.

In February 2009 Rockhattle Music (an italian indie) released their third CD, “Out To Play”.
The album, also on sale on many “on line stores” such as iTunes, contains 12 songs written by Fizzotti(one together with Marina Schiavinato) and 3 covers.
The original compositions range from the funky blues style of “Out To Play” or “Looking for my Marylou” to the rock blues style of “Never worried 'bout a thing”, from the shuffle style of “I'm a Tiger” or “Nothing is easy” to the swing/rockabilly style of “Dragon's Boogie”, from the r'n'b style of “Getting High” to the slow minor blues style of “Darkness All Around”.
The acoustic element is more to the forefront than in the previous albums: a tribute to Elvis Presley in “All Shook Up” with a blues vibe, a dobro guitar plaied with a bottleneck slide in the painful “Down on the River”, which ecoes the Mississipi worksongs and features Marina Schiavinato on vocals, a finger-picked acoustic guitar with a taste of Big Bill Broonzy in “Turn Me Loose” and, finally, the 5 strings banjo giving a country vibe to “After Midnight” or the mandolin starting off and riding along the world famous rock'n'roll anthem “Johnny B. Goode”.
Radio stations in Italy and abroad have been playing the CD (USA: KKJZ Los Angeles, WVOF Bridgeport, WNUR Chicago, KBCS Washington, Smokestack lightin' Florida, Phoenix 98, GB: Bishop FM, Star 107, Radio Six International, Talk Radio Europe, Denmark: Radio Holstebro, Holland: BRTO Radio, etc).
The CD has also been reviewed in a very positive way by italian mags such as “Il Blues”, “Jamboree” or “Chitarre” and on line mags such as “Blues Bytes”(May 2009 issue).

Bruce Iglauer, head of “Alligator Records” in Chicago, told the Melody Makers : “ You are very good musicians with real blues feeling , lots of talent, very broad choice of styles and a lot of good taste. Not every song appeals to me, but overall I was quite impressed. You are a really good band that can play blues and variations on blues in many styles with taste and credibility”.

During their live performances the Melody Makers play, beside a few songs taken from the two CDs, songs by the great artists from the ‘60s such as Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles