WICN Artist of the Month, October 2026: Greg Piccolo

For more than 60 years now, tenor sax man and vocalist Greg Piccolo has been dazzling audiences with his spontaneous no-set-list style of performance, swinging through R&B, traditional jazz, rock & roll, blues, and more.

The New England Music Hall of Famer was born May 10, 1951, in Westerly, Rhode Island, the cradle of a rich blues and jazz scene nurtured by the iconic Knickerbocker Cafe and performers like Piccolo himself.

Piccolo started his first band at  age 13, a six-piece rock band called the Rejects that began his foray into the Rhode Island music scene. Even then, the saxophone was something special to Piccolo. In the decades since, he’s become a premier tenor sax player, vocalist, and songwriter. Beyond his primary musical focuses, Piccolo’s range also extends to the guitar and harmonica.

“I’ve been pulled in different directions,” he told Sound Waves Magazine in 2011. “But I just wouldn’t feel good if I left the sax behind.”

The Rejects played regularly at the Westerly-Pawcatuck YMCA, and in the years following, Piccolo played in cover bands Greg and the Groupe, the Friends, and the Variations.

In 1970, Duke Robillard invited Piccolo to hop on the horn for his band Roomful of Blues in a fateful collaboration; Piccolo would stick with the band for nearly 25 years. Eventually, Piccolo stepped up to the roles of lead vocalist and bandleader when Robillard left in the 1980s.

During Piccolo’s tenure with them, Roomful of Blues spent 15 years playing at the Knickerbocker Cafe every Sunday. In between, they traveled the world, touring extensively through New England and making their stops at music festivals around North America and Europe.

In 1990, Piccolo released his first solo album, “Heavy Juice,” a record influenced by his years with Roomful of Blues. “Heavy Juice” was an avenue for Piccolo to put more of a personal spin on his music, and he began touring with his band of the same name in 1994. The ‘Heavy Juice’ style is both one of crossing genre boundaries and of Piccolo’s chance to demonstrate his full songwriting and sax potential in a smaller band.

In three decades with Heavy Juice, Piccolo has put out five more albums, from 1995’s “Acid Blue” all the way up to his latest release. This year’s “Who Knows What the Future Holds” is a record of rich grooves and witty vulnerability that Piccolo has written over the past 30+ years.

If not all of the future, we can at least know what October holds for Piccolo. On October 22, Greg Piccolo and Heavy Juice take the stage in Club 321, the intimate, cabaret-style space in Mechanics Hall, for this fall’s Brian Barlow concert.

Doors open at 6:15, and the music starts at 7. Ticket options include general admission for $30 and VIP tickets for $50. Visit mechanicshall.org to grab your tickets now.

Since 2020, WICN 90.5 Public Radio has sponsored the Brian Barlow Concert Series in honor of the former general manager of WICN. The concert series celebrates Barlow’s lifelong passion for the performing arts by hosting fabulous live performances by award-winning artists.