October 2–9, 1997

critic pick|blues

blues

Rod Piazza

Back in the day, a white harp player was a tough sell to the black blues crowd. Rod Piazza's posters used to read, "Harmonica Rod—He's white, but he's outta sight!" When his recording career started back in the '60s, he was the only white artist on ABC Bluesways—a label that included T-Bone Walker, Joe Turner and Otis Spann. Today, blues audiences are much more racially mixed, but his long history has put him in a league with many blues legends. Living Blues magazine recently nominated him for best performer along with Buddy Guy, B.B. King and Albert Collins.

"We're playing music we all grew up loving and keeping it fresh," says Piazza. His band, the Mighty Flyers, specializes in West Coast blues, which has a more open feel. The shuffle doesn't require everyone to get together on accentuating the backbeat, "it lets the instruments float over the beat." Combine that freedom to improvise with solid arrangements and it's no wonder the band attracts rave reviews for its live shows.

As a very young child, Piazza was completely enchanted by his older brother's blues records. The same sibling chaperoned his underage brother into the clubs. During one of those visits, Piazza met Jimmy Reed backstage who unwittingly launched a career by giving the youngster one of his mouth harps.

Piazza continued to dig deeper into the blues, eventually forming a partnership with his mentor, George "Harmonica" Smith. They were a big enough hit to travel with Big Mama Thornton in the '60s.

How does he get the unique tone that snaps heads out of conversation and back to the stage? "It comes from fiddling and fiddling, the quest for sounds. You just hit on a sound by mistake then keep on honing it and honing it 'til you put it to use in a song that gives it an identity of its own." He cites the title track of the newest Tone-Cool CD, Tough and Tender. On it he uses a 12-hole chromatic harmonica to get a sound he describes as "distorted, almost not even a note, more percussive than melodic. That's one of my inventions. You can really implant a rhythm with it 'cause it's so strong." That's the key to the Mighty Flyers: strong and experimental, while deeply rooted in original sounds.

Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, Mon., Oct. 8, Warmdaddy's, 4 S. Front St., 627-2500.

-Mary Armstrong