Here & Now

Don't confuse Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers with the many self-conscious jump-blues poseurs out there who claim kinship with Louis Jordan, T-Bone Walker, and other historical figures. Harmonica player Piazza, a pillar of the West Coast blues scene since the mid-'60s, studied the Chicago and West Coast styles long and hard under former Muddy Waters sidekick George "Harmonica" Smith. On this album, Piazza uses his chromatic harp with typical flair, taste, and confidence, enlivening a program made up almost entirely of original songs. The native Californian's vocabulary of slurs, stammers, and bent notes on the slow blues "I Do Believe" has the expressive power of the late master Little Walter, and his control of tone and phrasing is superlative everywhere else, as on the instrumental stretch-out "Strat-O-Spheric" and the sassy "Somebody's Fool." Drummer Steve Mugalian and string bassist Bill Stuve provide alert accompaniment throughout the album, probably the strongest Mighty Flyers studio effort since Piazza launched the band back in 1980. --Frank-John Hadley