Artist: Rod Piazza
Genre(s):
Blues
R&B: Soul
Discography:
Thrill Ville
Year: 2007
Tracks: 14
For the Chosen Who
Year: 2005
Tracks: 12
Vintage Live: 1975
Year: 1998
Tracks: 10
Tough And Tender
Year: 1997
Tracks: 1
A California-based megrims bandleader, harp player, and singer, Rod Piazza's stratospheric mouth harp wailings owe a heavy debt to both Little Walter and George "Mouth harp" Smith. Piazza began his professional career as a member of the Dirty Blues Band in the mid-'60s. The Dirty Blues Band recorded two albums for ABC/Bluesway -- an eponymic debut in 1967 and 1968's Stone Dirty. Piazza leftfield the band after the acquittance of Stone Dirty, choosing to remove the road with his graven image George "Mouth harp" Smith instead. Over the next decade and a half, Piazza and Smith performed together ofttimes under the name Bacon Fat; they also recorded the casual album. In 1969, Bacon Fat released their eponymous debut album on Blue Horizon. While he was acting with Smith, Piazza released his possess solo albums, the first base of which -- Rod Piazza Blues Man -- appeared on LMI in 1973. The s, Chicago Flying Saucer Band, was released in 1979 on Gangster Records.
As Smith's health began to decline in the early '80s, Piazza assembled the Mighty Flyers -- with his wife Honey Alexander on keyboards -- which began playing clubs in 1980. Between 1981 and 1985, the Mighty Flyers released iII albums: Radioactive Material (1981), File Under Rock (1984), and From the Start to the Finish (1985). During the early '80s, Piazza became a session instrumentalist, functional with artists as divers as Pee Wee Crayton and Michelle Shocked. In the mid-'80s, he began a full-fledged solo career, cathartic Harpburn on Murray Brothers in 1986 and So Glad to Have the Blues in 1988. Piazza and the Mighty Flyers signed a contract with Black Top Records in 1991; the label later re-released the group's albums on CD. Throughout the '90s, Piazza continued to record and perform with the Mighty Flyers, cathartic the occasional solo album, like 1999's Hither and Now. Beyond the Source appeared in 2001. Three years later the Mighty Fliers returned with Keepin' it Real on the Blind Pig label featuring deuce new members, Paul Fasulo on drums and guitarist Henry Carvajal. The side by side deuce albums were released by Delta Groove Records, For the Chosen Who in 2005 and Thrillville in 2007.
Ravi Shankar - Ali Akbar Khan
