ROD PIAZZA & MFBQ "THRILLVILLE" Source: Blues & Rhytm Magazine Date: 09/2007 Writer: Phil Wight

Harpman/vocalist Rod Piazza’s Mighty Flyers are now down to a quartet. Having dispensed with the presence of a bass player, Honey Piazza on piano concentrates her left hand on the low end bass notes and I’d defy anyone to notice the absence of a conventional bass! Henry Carvajal plays guitar and new member Dave Kida is now on the drum seat. Sax men Johnny Viau and Allen Ortiz appear on several cuts.

Piazza’s second Delta Groove release is firmly in the West Coast out of Chicago tradition, opening with a hard hitting assault on Little Walter’s ‘Hate To See You Go’ that snakes it’s way into and out of Slim Harpo’s ‘Shake Your Hips’. ‘Westcoaster’ is a classy West Coast swing instrumental out of the George Smith handbook. Honey is outstanding on Piazza’s original song ‘Get Wise’; nodding to Little Walter and the Aces, it’s a foot stomping chromatic workout.

With riffing saxes providing the perfect background tonal colour, ‘Hoodoo Man Blues’ is a sweet workout on the Junior Wells number, followed by the funky soul workout ‘MFBQ’. It’s back to Little Walter territory with the Willie Dixon composition ‘I Don’t Play’, Piazza stands down for guitarist Henry Carvajal’s original instrumental, ‘The Civilian’; this guy really can spank that plank! ‘It Can’t Be True’ is a tribute to an older style of r&b ballad, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson comes to mind especially when Carvajal steps up to the plate. ‘Snap Crackle Hop’ is another of those hard charging instrumentals workouts that have become the speciality of West Coast harp men.

‘Stranger Blues’ is credited to Elmore James, Clarence Lewis, and Bobby Robinson, however it’s performed here in the style of Sonny and Brownie, but a credit to Tampa Red may be more appropriate! The closing cut appropriately enough is another Little Walter song; the instrumental ‘Sad Hours’ brings to a conclusion another triumphant CD for Piazza and the Flyers.

Piazza has been keeper of the flame for the real deal blues for four decades, from the era of the Dirty Blues Band to Bacon Fat to the Chicago Flying Saucer Band, which finally spawned the Mighty Flyers. He’s seriously overdue for a UK tour, in the meantime give yourself a treat and listen to this new CD. It’s been getting a lot of airtime in my workroom and I suspect it will get serious play in yours.