Criss Cross Jazz 1422 CD

Oz Noy

Fun One



Some might think that guitarist Oz Noy, a celebrated voice in jazz-fusion over the last quarter century for applying his formidable guitar chops to funky rhythms and blues-based changes on 13 leader albums and hundreds of plugged-in concert performances, is not an obvious fit for Criss Cross, whose 420+-album catalog connects almost exclusively to the various tributaries of the hardcore acoustic jazz river.

Noy, 52, begs to differ. “I’ve known about Criss Cross since my brother brought home albums when I was a teenager,” he says, discussing the back story of his label debut, Fun One, a creative, sophisticated and, shall we say, swinging trio encounter with pianist David Kikoski, bassist James Genus and drummer Clarence Penn. “I know Peter Bernstein’s albums and Adam Rogers’ albums. I love Mike Moreno’s last album. I know how the albums sound. I started to study jazz chords and harmony when I was 13. I started making a living playing pop and rock music when I was 15 or 16, and for all my years in New York I’ve had an electric trio that plays groove music mixed with jazz and funk that’s enabled me to get a record deal and make albums. But I’ve been playing standards and jazz all my life, and probably since 2017 with this quartet. I’ve just never recorded it.”

“I like to play before I record,” Noy says. “I don’t sit at home and go, ‘let me mess with this tune and make it interesting.’ I play the tunes live, ideas and concepts come up as I play, and then I realize, ‘this is my version; this is how I feel it.’ There’s a zillion standards, and I don’t play them just for the sake of playing a solo. I like to play tunes where I can find a unique vibe, a unique angle, where I feel comfortable to go in a direction that makes sense to me.”