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BiTS: [Laughs] That's wonderful. Did you learn just by listening to other people and
trying to copy them?

FP: No, [chuckles] maybe nowadays it seems a little strange, but here in northern

Italy in those times, no one was playing blues harmonica and most of the things I
learned in my younger days came from records. There were no computers, Google
or YouTube and musical instructional books were very difficult to find. So it took

me six months to learn something
that today a kid can learn, probably
in one day [chuckles]. Also, with the

English language was the same. I
always make a joke of it but my
English teachers at the time were

Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf
[laughs].

BiTS: So how did you learn about

things like cross harp and the
various ways, what are called
positions of play? How did you

actually learn that?

FP: I was desperate. All my friends
at the bar said to me, Fabrizio, why

do you want to to learn how to play
harmonica? Maybe it's better if you
learn to play guitar or drums

because everybody knows. And I was almost close to quitting because it seems
strange nowadays, but at the time I was thinking to myself, maybe it's because in
Italy they don't sell the right harmonicas to play the blues. Probably in US or UK,

they have different harmonicas.

So I remember, long story short, I remember one night I went to a jam session just
to listen to live music and there was a great guitar player. So at the end of the show

I went close to the stage, fighting with myself, because I was very, very, very shy,
and said to him, oh, you did a great job. I love your guitar playing and he asked me,

are you a musician too? I said, oh no, I'm just trying to play this little harmonica but
it's difficult because probably it’s not the right instrument. And he said to me, no,
no, your harmonica, there's nothing wrong. It's because of the position. The cross
position, and he wrote me some information on the napkins at the bar.

So if the band play in E, you have to use a harmonica in A. Well, I came back home.
I didn't see the light right away, but my harmonica began to sound a little bit more
blues [chuckles] and I was happy. And also some obsession, a good obsession. I

remember waking up in the middle of the night and saying to myself, wow, I