I’ll take all of the above.<\/p>\n Since he started playing guitar in Israel at age 10, Noy was always fascinated by all different types of music. In his twenties, he put all of his influences together to gain what is now his signature sound. Guitar Player Magazine has awarded Oz the title of “Best New Talent” as well as “Best Guitar Riff on a Record”. Noy is now bringing his trio featuring Dave Weckl and Darryl Jones to Anthology for what’s sure to be a fantastic show. Read on to find out what Noy defines as jazz, what he thinks the future of jazz will be, and his surprising comments on the torturous writing process.<\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Tell me a little bit about your musical background\u2014 I know you grew up in Israel and started playing professionally at a really early age.<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> I grew up in Israel, and I started playing guitar when I was 10. I got into the Beatles first and started playing their songs. My older brother started playing bass, and he got into jazz, so there were some jazz records in the house also. SO I always had both. I had the pop stuff, the Beatles, some Israeli pop stuff that I liked, but I also had jazz around. That\u2019s kind of how I started.<\/em><\/p>\n I think the first year when I started playing guitar, I developed really quickly. Within two or three years I started to study jazz, which I guess was still pretty young, I was about 13.\u00a0 And then from 13, I started to play in some bands and stuff and do some recording for some people. Israel is a small place. You don\u2019t have to be the greatest guitar player in the world to play there. I was kind of lucky from that perspective, just because I was able to not be that great, but still get the experience.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n By about 16 I started to get really professional. I was there until the age of 24, and then at 24, I moved to New York. The main thing about my style and playing though is that I always played both. It was kind of hard growing up doing both because I couldn\u2019t really focus on one thing. I was always into rock and blues and funk, but at the same time really deep into jazz. It took many years for it to just gel. For many years it was just heavy metal and be-bop (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) Of course the two extremes.<\/em><\/p>\n OZ:<\/strong> Exactly. So that\u2019s kind of in general what it is. When I moved to New York, it took a while just to get it all in. I think one of the things that made a big difference for me was that I actually started to do my band in Israel. I was doing a lot of pop gigs when I got to New York, and for a while, people just stopped calling me to do jazz gigs\u2014 I don\u2019t really know why, it just kind of goes in cycles and periods. Plus, I\u2019m a guitar player, so there\u2019s less work for me than drummers, bass players, you know, so I had to kind of start my own band. I was a Wes Montgomery clone for a very long time, and then I stopped. After that I couldn\u2019t get any jazz gigs for a very long time. I had one bar in Israel where I used to play jazz, and I said to the guy you know, what if I wanted to do some other stuff like funk or blues, so that\u2019s how my trio started there playing this blues night. Then after that I got bored, so I started to do the same thing with more funk and R&B tunes like Stevie Wonder stuff, but I\u2019d play it instrumentally. And then I got bored from that after a while, so I figured I\u2019d see what happened if I started to play my jazz licks over the funk and R&B tunes. That\u2019s still to this day the concept of my band really.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s that. But when I moved to New York, I moved with my hollow body guitar and my Fender, so I really still had those two personalities going on at the same time. I started to do my trio here, but at the same time, I started working with Gavin DeGraw, the singer. I played with him really from the beginning when he just started. We used to do this steady Monday night gig here in New York until he got signed, well, for two years really. So I ended up needing an acoustic guitar, so I sold my hollow body, and that was the best thing I\u2019d ever done in my life at that point. I only had my Stratocaster and at that point everything really came together. I started using that guitar for everything, you know? It really hit quick.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Did you always write?<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> Yeah, I really did. Once I realized that I had to start my own band, I did start writing. I don\u2019t know why, because it\u2019s not really an enjoyable process for me to write. It\u2019s not fun at all (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) That\u2019s a first! You really don\u2019t sound like you enjoy it at all!<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> No! It\u2019s kind of torturous! It\u2019s cool when an idea comes, but I\u2019m not one of those guys like Paul McCartney who wakes up in the morning and completes \u201cYesterday\u201d in his head, you know? When things come to my mind, it\u2019s great and all, but then you have to work to develop it. With some songs, it can take me months. There are certain ideas I\u2019ll have in my drawer for years. I\u2019ll get to them when I have to make another album and figure out what I\u2019m going to go for, and then I can see what will work and what won\u2019t. But no, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fun at all (laughs). I\u2019ve got other things in my life that are more fun than that!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) I think anyone who writes completely relates to it being a bit of a torturous process. It\u2019s just so funny to actually hear someone say it!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> The other thing is that I\u2019m not one of those guys who just sits in my room and it will just come to me. I have to work for it. I don\u2019t just sit there and the muse comes to me and just brings me the most brilliant shit ever. I have to really work for it and dig for it, then go back and work through it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> When you\u2019re writing and developing a song, do you write primarily from being inspired by the myriad of sounds that you have on stage? I know anytime I\u2019ve seen you, you\u2019ve had a ton of pedals and tones to choose from.<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> First of all, my gear set up got developed through writing music for my band. It sort of started the opposite way. I wrote the tunes, and then incorporated the pedals into that. It\u2019s mainly to make the sound bigger, make it more interesting, and fill out the space since we\u2019re only three people. That\u2019s the main thing. But, it could happen the other way where a really cool sound inspires you to write something. So yes, but the purpose for having those pedals on the floor isn\u2019t just to have them. The purpose is a musical purpose. I don\u2019t sit at home and play with pedals. I could get bored really quick doing that.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> So the pedals are more of an arranging tool for you at the end of the writing process?<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> Yeah, but sometimes it happens that a sound can get you inspired. There is a part of that that is inspiring, but I wouldn\u2019t count on that as a writing tool.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Who have you been listening to lately?<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> Hendrix, you heard about him (laughs)?<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> (Laughs) You know, I think I know the name.<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> He\u2019s this new guy, just got out (laughs). I try to listen to everything all the time. I like pop, rock, everything. I like really good songwriting\u2014 top 20 stuff on the radio I like sometimes too. Lately I\u2019m more into old blues. I try to listen to whatever new jazz records are coming out, and sometimes more for the purpose of just seeing what\u2019s out there. I\u2019m kind of open.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> It makes perfect sense that you\u2019re open to all kinds of different music, and especially listening to your music.<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> I think so. I enjoy life; I don\u2019t want to get stuck in one area, although some people like that.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> The trio you\u2019re coming out to San Diego with is pretty awesome\u2014 Darryl Jones and Dave Weckl. What has playing with those guys been like?<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> It\u2019s great. I\u2019ve been with Weckl for a couple of years now, and he\u2019s really the best drummer there is. It\u2019s really great! Darryl has been in the band for the last two years, and it\u2019s great! I can\u2019t really complain. If there was anybody better, I\u2019d try to get them, but I don\u2019t think there is (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Yeah, I\u2019d say you\u2019re at the top of the line there (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s the top of the list. I love it though; they\u2019re great. I\u2019ve got what, five records now, so there\u2019s a lot of music and a lot of different situations. I usually try to stick with the same guys that I play with just to get a real band sound. With Weckl, since we\u2019ve been doing it a lot, it really gels nicely. It\u2019s nice to be able to have the option to switch out the drummer or the bass player every once in a while because it changes things up and inspires you. Although the music doesn\u2019t sound like jazz, it\u2019s still jazz. You can interpret that in many different ways. Whether I\u2019m playing with Darryl and Weckl or Vinnie Colaiuta or Keith Carlock and James Genus, it\u2019s going to be the same tunes but completely different. That\u2019s what I like about it.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I think that\u2019s finally starting to set in as the attitude of the genre\u2014 jazz can be so many different things that don\u2019t sound like just standards.<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> Yeah\u2014 there\u2019s a tune, and we improvise on it. We don\u2019t always swing, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not jazz!<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> Totally. Robert Glasper has been talking about this a lot lately too.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> He\u2019s the perfect example for that stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> I think it\u2019s neat to see this younger generation of jazz musicians try and update the genre.<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> Jazz is a concept. It\u2019s not only supposed to be swing. Jazz can be a lot of different things. It\u2019s a form of improvisation.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> It\u2019s more than \u201cThe Real Book\u201d (laughs).<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> (Laughs) Yes, just a little more than that\u2014 although I do love \u201cThe Real Book\u201d, but yeah.<\/em><\/p>\n CP:<\/strong> It\u2019s time for some new standards.<\/em><\/p>\n ON:<\/strong> I think we\u2019ve got a lot of new standards; it\u2019s just too early to detect what they are. A couple years ago, Herbie did this record with Scofield and Brecker where they did all these pop songs and called them the new standards, that was the beginning of it I guess. But it\u2019s coming. They\u2019re there, we just need some time to see what stands out.<\/em><\/p>\n Special thanks to Oz for his time! Don’t miss out on this ridiculously tight trio next Thursday! As always, take a listen to Oz at the Spotify link below, and pick up your tickets at the ticket link! WHAT: <\/em>Oz Noy Trio<\/strong><\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Interview with Oz Noy by: Casey Pukl\u00a0 Guitarist Oz Noy has always straddled many musical lines. Is he blues? Pop? Rock? Jazz? All of the above? I’ll take all of the above. Since he started playing guitar in Israel at age 10, Noy was always fascinated by all different types of music. In his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442],"tags":[11512],"class_list":["post-5832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-artist-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32924,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5832\/revisions\/32924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/oz_noy2.jpeg\" "\\"oz_noy2\\"")
<\/a>Guitarist Oz Noy has always straddled many musical lines. Is he blues? Pop? Rock? Jazz? All of the above?<\/p>\n
\nOz Noy on Spotify<\/a><\/p>\n
\nWHEN: <\/span>Thursday, April 12, 7:30 pm<\/strong><\/em>
\nTICKETS: $10-$39 <\/span>Buy Tickets<\/a><\/em>
\nMORE INFO: <\/span>Artist Profile<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n