A California-based blues bandleader, harmonica player, and singer,
Rod Piazza's stratospheric harmonica wailings owe a heavy debt to both Little Walter and
George "Harmonica" 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 eponymous debut in 1967 and 1968's Stone Dirty.
Piazza left the band after the release of Stone Dirty, choosing to hit the road with his idol
George "Harmonica" Smith instead. Over the next decade and a half,
Piazza and
Smith performed together frequently under the name
Bacon Fat; they also recorded the occasional album. In 1969,
Bacon Fat released their eponymous debut album on Blue Horizon. While he was performing with
Smith,
Piazza released his own solo albums, the first of which -- Rod Piazza Blues Man -- appeared on LMI in 1973. The second, 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 three albums: Radioactive Material (1981),
File Under Rock (1984), and
From the Start to the Finish (1985). During the early '80s,
Piazza became a session musician, working with artists as diverse as
Pee Wee Crayton and
Michelle Shocked. In the mid-'80s, he began a full-fledged solo career, releasing
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, releasing the occasional solo album, like 1999's
Here 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 two new members, Paul Fasulo on drums and guitarist Henry Carvajal. The next two albums were released by Delta Groove Records, For the Chosen Who in 2005 and Thrillville in 2007.
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