[Harp-L] Performance report: Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers at Biscuits & Blues, San Francisco, 10 PM April 27 2007

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I first heard Rod Piazza on record when I bought the Dirty Blues Band LP 
in 1967, and I've heard a fair amount of his recorded work since, enough 
to know that he covers a very wide emotional range in his playing, and 
fronts a strong band.  This is the first time I've heard Piazza in 
performance.  It was a great show.

He fronted a band with Henry See on guitar and vocals, Piazza's
wife Honey on piano and keyboard bass, and a great drummer whose name I 
didn't catch. The band was superb, individually and as a group, with a 
deep, full ensemble sound and strong grooves on everything.  Piazza's 
own playing and singing were outstanding. He opened with a solo 
chromatic piece (played in 3rd position, I'm sure, i.e. D minor, on a 
4-octave chromatic), switching to diatonic for his solo.  Most of his 
playing this night was in 2nd position on diatonic, played through what 
looked like an Astatic mic into a big red Harpking amplifier. His tone 
was great, of course, and I was most impressed by his exceptionally 
strong rhythm--did I mention that the grooves this band laid down were 
great?--and the way he mixed his textures up with single notes, octaves, 
and partial chords, spread all over the range of he instrument. As many 
Chicago-style players do, he used vocal sounds--something between a 
breath and a grunt--through the mic to provide a rhythmic and textural 
counterpoint to the harp, a subtle effect that added weight and drive to 
the band's overall sound.

Every member of the band got a showcase. Honey Piazza played a 
boogie-woogie piano duet with the drummer that showed both players off 
brilliantly.  Henry See took the lead on vocal and guitar on a slow 
blues while Piazza sat out. See played a lot of guitar low on the neck, 
exactly as a guitar player backing a harp player should.  Everything 
rocked. I never missed a bass player.  Honey even played behind the beat 
with her left-hand bass sometimes, just as a real bass player would. 
The overall sound level was loud enough to be punchy and get your 
attention, never loud enough to make me think about ear plugs.

The repertoire included two Little Walter pieces: "Mellow Down Easy" and 
one of the slow instrumental blues ("Blue Lights", I think?). It was 
interesting to see that Piazza stuck pretty close to Walter's work on 
these pieces, even to the point of including the little structural 
variations that Walter sometimes used (e.g. dropping a measure out of 
the 12-bar here and there).

I noticed that Piazza's textures didn't include a lot of full-blown 3 
and 4 note chords.  This is consistent with the band's style, and it's 
also consistent with his gear--the typical blues mic just turns a 4-note 
chord into mush anyway, and octaves have a lot more "cut" with that kind 
of setup, so why bother?  This is an area where modern players still 
have a lot of room for exploration.

On the showmanship side, the band was nicely dressed, Piazza in a 
powder-blue suit that really looked too good to be a straight '50s 
homage.  (You know, except for Chicago blues, the '50s kind of sucked.) 
  Henry See wore a dark sport coat and slacks--he looked like he'd fit 
right in with a smooth jazz band. It was good to see a band that cared 
to dress for the occasion. The music was almost continuous, one song 
leading straight to another, leaving the audience no time for boredom. 
The players moved well to the music, grooving physically as well as 
musically without outrageous theatrics.

It was great to see a small ensemble put out such a big, swinging sound, 
and great also to hear a guy that I first heard on record 40 years ago 
still laying down the big grooves with a huge tone.  This was one of the 
most enjoyable blues performances I've heard in a while, certainly on 
par with the Charlie Musselwhite show I saw in San Francisco about a 
year ago. In short, if you get the chance to see this band perform, and 
you dig blues even slightly, do it.

Final comment: the price for this show at Biscuits & Blues was $15. 
This was certainly a reasonable price for a couple of hours of great 
music in a comfortable, smoke-free, well-lit room with a good sound 
system and helpful wait staff who aren't pushy or annoying. I didn't 
sample the food in B&B, but I'm told it's very good southern-style 
cuisine. If you're going to San Francisco, it's worth your while to 
check the schedule for this club.

Regards, Richard Hunter
hunterharp.com
Latest mp3s at http://www.broadjam.com/rhutner