OZ NOY INTERVIEW
With a new trio album of standards coming out in January, Oz Noy spoke to Jason Sidwell about his approach to jazz and why he likes the trio format.
How did you decide on the choice of standards for the new album?
During the start of the pandemic in Spring 2020 when NYC just started to get out of lockdown I was really eager to play. I live on the upper west side in NYC next to two parks (Central Park and Riverside Park) so I called two of my friends Ugonna Okegwo (acoustic bassist) and Ray Marchica (drummer) that live in my neighbourhood and asked if they’d be into playing in the park. We started to play in Riverside Park during the day about three times a week from end of May till end of Oct (when it got cold). By the end Ray came up with the idea of us recording and documenting this band cause we play so much and started to actually sound like a band. We ended up going to a studio for two days and recording some of the standards that we played all summer in Riverside Park.
What did you aim to do - and to avoid - with your playing approaches?
I wanted to capture the sound of this trio. We had such a vibe when we played in the park and we just wanted to get as close as we could to that. I’ve been playing jazz and standards all my life, even though my recordings are electrified I alway did jazz gigs in NYC, I just never recorded a jazz album until now but it’s the same approach whether I play electric groove music or acoustic jazz.
What do you find stimulating about the American songbook standards?
I’m not one of those guys that learned or knows a thousand standards. I just like specific ones that I feel inspired by and make me want to play and do my thing.
Did any challenge you, maybe seeking to avoid cliches that others in the past have used?
No, I don’t think that way at all, I just try to develop melodies and musical ideas. I don’t care if they’re cliches or not, to me it’s all music. I’m not afraid of cliches or licks, if the melodies are nice I play them.
When it comes to soloing, how do you like to balance new ideas with the chord changes and the main melodies?
I think it’s important to play the song the way you understand and interpret it. I try to highlight the song’s chords but at the same time make sure the harmony doesn’t limit my flow of ideas. I like to flow over the melodies but in a way where you can still hear the song. It’s actually a very challenging thing for me, that’s why there are specific standards that I feel more comfortable playing then others.
One of the benefits of trio playing is it can be both a challenge and a joy, harmonically speaking. What do you especially like about this format?
I like the freedom, and the overall open sound of a three-piece band. There’s a lot of space harmonically, melodically and sonically in this format. When you have another harmonic instrument like piano and organ it can cover a lot of harmonic ground and also sonic space. With a horn player it’s different but it’s still a different sound for the band.
There have been other jazz based guitarists that use effects when playing jazz but it seems you’ve opted not to for this album. Do you prefer an open, honest guitar sound to do standards justice?
Not really, I do play a lot of gigs where I play standards using effects but I just wanted to be true to the sound of this specific band. When we were playing in the park I was just bringing a guitar and plugging straight into a Roland Cube battery amp so I wanted to capture that vibe.
Do you have a favourite track on the album from a band performance or maybe a fresh stylistic approach you chose?
I like my arrangement of Billie’s Bounce because it’s so different from the original. I also like All The Things You Are because I feel it represent the sound of this band.
Billie’s Bounce has a lovely laid back feel to it. What encouraged the approach?
It’s normally played as a fast blues but I ended up messing around with it and making it sound nice as a slow blues. I don’t really know how the idea came to me, I can’t remember!
“I like the freedom, and the overall open sound of a three-piece band.”
The big band groove of Riverside Blues sits somewhere between Wes Montgomery and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Is blending blues and jazz a particular musical zone for you?
Yes, very much so but to be honest that was maybe the hardest song for me to play over cause I wanted to commit to that clean guitar tone and it was very hard for me to play and articulate my ideas with that tone. It was too clean for blues and not jazzy enough for jazz.
Donna Lee is quite a benchmark for jazzers with a busy head and lots of soloing possibilities. What do you particularly like about the piece?
I like the harmonic movement a lot. It’s nothing special really, you can find it in a hundred other jazz standards but I feel free to flow over the changes and play my ideas on those harmonies.
Sunny is another favourite for jazzers and rock-fusion players. You take it at quite a tempo with fast single-note control and impressive chord blazing. Is it a piece that you find unearths a lot of phrasing and melodic ideas when you play it?
I don’t really think that way, I just play the songs and let the ideas come out. I was heavily inspired by a live Pat Martino version I saw on Youtube when John Scofield guested. It’s just a fun song to play.
What guitars and amps did you choose to use? You have some nice Masterbuilt instruments.
Yes, that’s true. Well, for half of the album I used my Gretsch Duo Jet Stephen Stern Masterbuilt guitar. I also used my ’63 Strat John Cruz Masterbuilt and ’58 Strat Jason Smith Masterbuilt. I feel I should have used the Gretsch guitar on the whole album though. For amps I used my blackface Fender Princeton and The Roland Cube ‘street amp’ cause that’s what I used at the park. The guitar sounds on the album are mostly a blend of both amps together. I used an Exotic RC Booster just to give the guitar a bit more life and push the amps a bit, but actually the tone is totally clean.
Riverside Trio - Something Like The Park (Outside Music) is available from January 2022. For more about Oz Noy visit his website at www.oznoy.com