[Harp-L] New Rod Piazza CD/DVD

[scott <checker758@xxxxxxxxx>]

Coming out of lurk mode briefly...

 

This isn't an 'official' press release, but I wanted to let harp-freindly folks know about something I worked on (in a very peripheral way) and am pretty excited about.  Delta Groove Productions has just released the brand new Rod Piazza CD, "For The Chosen Who".  There's an interesting 'back story' on this one; over 25 years ago, Rod met an aspiring L.A. harp player named Randy Chortkoff.  Randy fell in love with Rod's music, and started hanging out with Rod, asking for pointers on the harp, etc.  Rod told Randy that what he really needed to do was listen to the established harp masters, and started making Randy tapes of then-hard-to-find recordings of Little Walter, Big Walter Horton, George Smith, and others Randy hadn't heard much of yet.  Rod became Randy's mentor, and Randy developed into a very good harp player and began fronting his own band.  In the course of booking and promoting his own band, Randy realized that he had a knack for the business end of the blues, and began
 producing and promoting other blues events as well, and many of the shows he put together featured his pal Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers.  

 

Of course it's tough to make a good living in the blues business, and Randy always had other business interests running in tandem with blues-related activities.  In recent years he's been very successful in the film industry, and this success allowed him to follow through on the long time dream he'd had to start his own record label.  So last year he established the Delta Groove Productions label.  His first releases were projects he'd begun working on before he even had a label for them (all of them very harp-heavy): The Mannish Boys and Kirk Fletcher; these were followed by Mitch Kashmar, and The Hollywood Blue Flames (the former Hollywood Fats Band.)  While many blues labels are cutting back on expenses these days, Randy has spared no expense in the production of these CDs, and all of them have been very well received and praised by reviewers.  

 

All of this had basically been leading up to Randy recording Rod Piazza, which in a big way is the whole reason he started the label.  He and Rod put their heads together and decided to do something different and bigger than either had ever done before.  Part of it was conceptualized as a 'back to the roots' project, with Rod paying tribute to some of the artists who drew him into the blues in the first place; the other side of the coin was a funkier, more modern approach the reflects the development of the music after the '50s Chicago/West Coast swing thing that has been Rod's specialty for years (and touches on here as well.)  So they booked a first class studio, and in addition to Rod's regular band The Mighty Flyers, they brought in a second backing band consisting of Phil Guy on guitar, Finis Tasby on bass, and veteran drummer James Gadson (who has played with everyone from all three of the Kings, to Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles, among hundreds of others).  They also brought
 in singer/harp man Johnny Dyer, Kid Ramos to on guitar, a chorus of four female backup singers, and a sax player, all of whom are featured throughout in various combinations.

 

As if that wasn't enough, Randy called in some favors from his 'day job' and brought in a professional multi-camera digital video crew to document the sessions and all the behind-the-scenes stuff.  Then he asked both Dick Shurman and me to contribute liner notes (my little contribution to the project, and the reason I know so much about it), and went all-out with the graphics, layout and packaging.  The end result is a beautifully packaged CD of what I think are the best recordings Rod has ever done in his almost 40 years as a recording artist, plus a professionally done DVD about 'the making of...', featuring interviews with all the principle participants, out takes, etc.  With so many blues labels - out of necessity - cutting back on expenses, cutting corners, and releasing fewer CDs, this one really deserves some attention for being a first class undertaking from beginning to end.  I don't have any idea how much money Randy spent producing this project, but I'm pretty sure that
 simply by virtue of the fact that it's a blues record, he'll never come close to making it back.  It's obviously one of those 'labor of love' projects that he did simply because he felt it had to be done, and he deserves to be recognized for it.

 

Delta Groove gets distribution to most of the major music outlets, or you can check them out here:  http://www.deltagrooveproductions.com

 

Scott Dirks (going back to lurk mode)


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