The Cinelli Brothers featuring Alice Armstrong Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival The Famous Spiegeltent George Square, Edinburgh Thursday 23 rd July 2026

Some award-winning blues was a rare treat for patrons in the Spiegeltent in George Square for this

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival event. At the 2026 UK Blues Awards, the Cinelli Brothers were named

as ‘Blues Band of the Year’ and Alice Armstrong won both ‘Blues Vocalist of the Year’ and ‘Contemporary Blues Artist of the Year’. Considering that Joanne Shaw Taylor and Eric Clapton were also winners on the night, those are not small achievements. Both acts are clearly well-known and appreciated within the blues clubs and the blues scene and are well-overdue for a bigger audience.

Tonight’s show was billed as ‘The Cinelli Brothers featuring Alice Armstrong’, so not a traditional opening and main act situation, but rather an ensemble collective with the artists playing together and cooking up a very nice two-hour set (with an interval) in the palatial tent.

The Cinellis like to mix it up a bit and share the vocal duties and swap instruments. On the opening tune ‘Spell on Me’ it is southpaw guitarist Tom Julian-Jones who takes the lead and blasts a bit of what we Scottish folks call ’the moothie’ (harmonica) on a roadhouse-style romp. Tom was not a Cinelli brother by birth, but he sure is now, and fits in nicely alongside band-leader Marco Cinelli and his drummer brother Alessandro. Marco steps up on ‘Just Dropped In (To See What Condition my Condition Was In) – a psychedelic trip written by Mickey Newbury that was first made famous in the late sixties by The First Edition featuring Kenny Rogers, but the brothers have made it their own now.

After that, it is time for Alice Armstrong to join the fun, with an authoritative version of B.B. King’s ‘How Blue Can You Get’. There is an easy rapport among the players, based on a few shared and collaborative experiences, and Alice then makes herself right at home with “one of mine” - a cracking version of ‘Upbeat Baby’ from her ‘Love, Sex & Death’ album that references being “born a shade of yellow” (just like Lisa Simpson)!

Next up in the vocal spotlight is Jorma. The bass player is another honorary Cinelli brother but with the trousers of a Scissor Sister. He and his trousers both shine on The Beatles’ bluesy rooftop classic ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ which highlights the depth of talent that makes The Cinelli Brothers one of the most respected live acts on the blues scene today.

A mash-up of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Were Made for Walking’ and Gloria Jones’ ‘Tainted Love’ gave Alice a chance to show off her incredible vocal range, touch and feel. A quick read of the bio on

her website suggests that her life so far has made her uniquely qualified to be a blues singer and she backs that up with a performance of charm, dexterity and real heart.

After a short interval, the boys are back on stage with their own song ‘Dark Side of the Road’ which covers the trials and tribulations of being a touring band. Before this Thursday night gig, they had been in The Azores and Romania and endured 10 flights in five days. They would be spending their weekend playing in Switzerland and Germany and it doesn’t end there – they’ll be back in some UK cities in October, including Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester and London.

After some well-received smoky continental jazz with reverb, the crowd are thinking “Alice, where the f**k is Alice?” She pops back up again for a humorous rendition of her debut single ‘Speed Dial’ which is delivered in a series of comedy accents, of which “posh English” is a clear favourite, and that was followed by the enduring standard ‘Chain of Fools’.

As if there wasn’t enough talent on stage, the band invite local hero Jed Potts (of Jed Potts & The Hillman Hunters fame) up to sit in on ‘Voodoo Woman’ at the end of the show, and suddenly it’s all over after an enthralling and entertaining set that really flew by.

The future is only going to get brighter for these artists, with the Cinelli Brothers seemingly playing in every corner of the planet and Alice getting a lot of attention for her ‘Blood in the Water’ live EP and heading to Canada next. It was a privilege to see this unique offering in such opulent and decadent surroundings and I hope they’ll all find their way back here someday soon.