Rod Piazza

Rod Piazza Rawa Blues Festival 2009

Honey and Rod Piazza 2007

Rod Piazza (born December 18, 1947, Riverside, California) is a blues harmonica player and singer from the United States. His sound combines the styles of jump blues, West Coast blues and Chicago blues.

Life

He started playing at the age of seven. His first instrument was a guitar. He played blues because his much older brothers bought records of this style. In 1963 he started playing the harp.

Around 1965 he formed his first band (The Mystics) where he should play the guitar but it came out that someone else played this instrument much better. So he became harp player and singer of the band. They had their first gigs at parties. Later they went to Los Angeles and played in little clubs. At that time they signed a contract with ABC Bluesway and renamed the band. They were now called „The Dirty Blues Band". Because some of the members had to go to Vietnam the band broke up. He formed a new band called Bacon Fat. In this band his mentor George "Harmonica" Smith played the second harp and so they had a "dual harp" sound.

After leaving Bacon Fat he played solo. Later he formed the Chicago Flying Saucer Band which was renamed "The Mighty Flyers". This is the band which is till today backing up Piazza. On of the founding members of the Mighty Flyers was the pianist Debra „Honey“ Solum, who later became Piazzas wife.^[1]

The Mighty Flyers 2011

• Rod Piazza: harp, vocals
• Honey Piazza:keyboards
• David Kida:drums
• Henry Carvajal:guitar

Discography

Pre-Mighty Flyers Era

• 1967 Dirty Blues Band / Dirty Blues Band (ABC-Bluesway)
• 1969 Dirty Blues Band / Stone Dirt (ABC-Bluesway)
• 1970 Bacon Fat / Grease One for Me (Blue Horizon)
• 1971 Bacon Fat / Tough Dude (Blue Horizon)
• 1973 Rod Piazza / Blues Man (LMI)
• 1979 Chicago Flying Saucer Band / Flying Saucer Band (Gangster)

The Mighty Flyers

• 1980 Radioactive Material (Right Hemisphere)
• 1981 The Mighty Flyers (Right Hemisphere)
• 1982 Robot Woman II (Shanghai)
• 1984 From the Start to the Finnish (Right Hemisphere)
• 1985 File Under Rock (Takoma)
• 1985 Harp Burn (Murray Brothers; Rod Piazza solo)
• 1988 So Glad to Have the Blues (Murray Brothers; Rod Piazza solo)
• 1991 Blues in the Dark (Black Top)
• 1992 Alphabet Blues (Black Top)
• 1994 Live at B.B. King's Club (Big Mo)
• 1997 Tough and Tender (Tone-Cool)
• 1999 Here and Now (Tone-Cool)
• 2001 Beyond The Source (Tone-Cool)
• 2004 Keepin' It Real (Blind Pig)
• 2005 For The Chosen Who (Delta Groove)
• 2007 Thrillville (Delta Groove)
• 2009 Soul Monster (Delta Groove)
• 2011 Almighty Dollar (Delta Groove)

As guest artist

• 1968 George 'Harmonica' Smith- Of the Blues
• 1969 Charlie Musselwhite- Tennessee Woman
• 1970 Revolutionary Blues Band- Revolutionary Blues Band
• 1978 Shakey Jake- Make It Good To You
• 1981 Gary Wright- Right Place
• 1981 Mother Gong- Robot Woman
• 1983 Shakey Jake- The Key Won't Fit
• 1983 Pee Wee Crayton- Make Way for Pee Wee
• 1983 Smokey Wilson- 88th Street Blues
• 1985 Jimmy Rogers -Feelin' Good
• 1988 Michelle Shocked -Short Sharp Shocked
• 1990 Tommy Conwell -Guitar Trouble
• 1991 Doug MacLeod -Ain't the Blues Evil
• 1994 Big Joe Turner -Big Bad & Blue
• 1995 Johnny Dyer- Jukin'
• 1995 Smokey Wilson- 88th Street Blues
• 1998 George 'Harmonica' Smith- Now You Can Talk About Me
• 1999 Pee Wee Crayton -Early Hour Blues
• 2000 Rick Holmstrom -Gonna Get Wild
• 2000 Charlie Musselwhite- Best of the Vanguard Years
• 2001 Kid Ramos -Greasy Kid Stuff

^[2]

References

1. "Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers - official website". themightyflyers.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-06. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
2. "Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers - official website". themightyflyers.com. Archived from the original on 2015-12-17. Retrieved 2011-11-06.