Rod Piazza

**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.
## 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 

## References