POP MUSIC REVIEW : Mighty Flyers Soar on Harmonic Gales

If the long-lived Mighty Flyers haven’t cracked the charts by now with their blues-based music, chances are they never will. And while the five-piece outfit may be stars on the limited-but-appreciative European blues scene--playing concerts and festivals there--Monday night found them back at the Sunset Pub, one of a circuit of local bars they have been working for well more than a decade.

But a life that might seem a rut to others is clearly a groove to the Flyers. Front man Rod Piazza has been a fixture of the Southern California blues crowd since he came up under the tutelage of George (Harmonica) Smith in the late ‘60s. If the young Piazza ever played with any more passion than he displayed Monday, it’s a wonder those old clubs weren’t blown down by his harmonica gales.

Such enthusiasm hasn’t always been the band’s stock in trade. Piazza’s prodigious harmonica technique has made him an international legend among harp players, but it often seemed in years past that his ability wasn’t matched by inspiration. Always musically faultless, the group at times appeared to be merely clocking in at the job. If their first two Sunset Pub sets were representative examples, though, Piazza and Co. are nowadays playing with a missionary zeal.

Piazza started the performance with Little Walter’s “Rocker,” doing that Chicago master proud with a sizzling harp tour de force that played off rhythmic punches offered by the other musicians. On the minor-keyed original “Murder in the First Degree,” he matched his harmonica work with a passionate, shouted vocal, delivered with a bit of Sonny Boy Williamson’s emotive vocal quaver.

His “Tribute to George Smith” was a slow, smoldering blues, with a spoken section in which Piazza evoked memories of his early days with his mentor. He slammed the lid on the band’s long second set with a dazzling chromatic-harp solo on the dramatic “The Black Night Has Fallen” and a tear-it-up unaccompanied solo in which he strolled through the club.

Even without Piazza, the Flyers would be a hot band, with much of that heat generated by Piazza’s pianist wife, Honey Alexander. Along with writing the bulk of the band’s excellent original material, Alexander is a monster pianist. That was evident throughout the show, but inescapable on the showcase instrumental, “The Stinger,” a barrelhouse romp that left few staves unbroken.

Alexander and drummer Jimi Bott also tackled the Louis Prima/Benny Goodman showstopper “Sing Sing Sing,” with Bott taking an extended solo that matched Gene Krupa’s energy if not his invention. He performed equally well submerged in the rhythm section, striking rollicking grooves with stand-up bassist Bill Stuve.

Two years ago, Canned Heat plucked away longtime Flyers guitarist Junior Watson, an instrumentalist so simultaneously right and ridiculously off-the-wall that “genius” would not be an inappropriate title. It’s certainly no shame if his replacement, Alex Schultz, does not quite fill Watson’s nearly clown-size shoes, and Schultz (who previously worked with Hank Ballard and the William Clarke Band) proved a solid stylist in his own right.

Schultz lent mood-laden accompaniments to “You Better Watch Yourself,” Muddy Waters’ “She’s 19 Years Old” and other standards, and turned notes every shade of blue on his two showcase numbers, Freddie King’s “Sidetracked” and a jumping Tommy Ridgely New Orleans horn band tune transmuted to the fret board.